Judge to review Maurene Comey’s wrongful termination case against Trump administration
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(NEW YORK) — Former federal prosecutor Maurene Comey and the Trump administration have not talked about settling her civil lawsuit and do not believe alternatives to a trial “would be useful at this time,” the parties told the judge in a letter on Monday.
Comey is suing over her firing, arguing she was “abruptly and wrongfully terminated” because her father is former FBI director James Comey, or because of her perceived political affiliation and beliefs.
In the letter, her lawyers and the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Northern District of New York, which is handling the case for the Justice Department, affirmed the need for a conference with the judge, which is currently scheduled for Thursday.
Comey wants the judge to order the government to begin producing evidence. Government lawyers are expected to ask the judge for time to file a motion to dismiss the case.
The defense said the proper place for Comey to argue is not in court, but before the Merit Systems Protection Board. Comey’s attorneys said her case presents “novel” issues about executive power that a judge must resolve.
“While there are cases that discuss a President’s authority under Article II to remove Principal Officers and Inferior Officers, we are unaware of any decision that discusses (let alone approves of) a President’s use of Article II authority to remove without cause a non-officer civil service employee such as a line-level Assistant United States Attorney, in direct violation of the CSRA and the Bill of Rights,” Comey’s attorneys, Nicole Gueron, Ellen Blain, Deepa Vanamali and Margaret Donovan wrote.
The defense characterized Comey’s case as routine.
“A federal employee’s claims that removal from federal service was arbitrary and capricious or conducted in a manner that did not provide the process to which they contend they were due is not a novel issue,” government attorneys said.
The letter said there are no meaningful settlement talks, and alternative dispute resolution mechanisms would be unhelpful at the moment.
The Kankakee County Sheriff’s Office released this image of a man in connection with a homicide, Feb. 2, 2026, in rural Momence near the Illinois/Indiana border. (Kankakee County Sheriff’s Office)
(MOMENCE, Ill.) — Investigators are searching for a man believed to be behind the fatal shooting of a rural bar owner in Momence, Illinois.
Courtney Drysdale, 30, was pronounced dead at a bar near the Illinois-Indiana state line on Monday shortly before noon, according to the Kankakee County Sheriff’s Office.
Investigators have released photos of the suspect and his vehicle that were captured by security footage at the bar.
Deputies responded to a report of a possible dead individual and classified the incident as a homicide based on evidence gathered during a preliminary examination on Monday, according to the sheriff’s office.
Drysdale was preparing to open the bar just before 11 a.m. when a suspect entered the bar and brandished a firearm, demanding money from the cash register, Kankakee County Sheriff Mike Downey said at a press conference Tuesday.
Despite Drysdale’s cooperation, the suspect allegedly shot her twice “execution style,” Downey said.
Before fleeing the scene, the suspect attempted to remove what he believed was a digital recording device from a wall, but investigators were able to recover video evidence, Downey said.
No one else was in the bar at the time of the killing, Downey said.
The suspect was seen leaving the scene with a firearm and is believed to be armed and dangerous, according to Downey. The suspect was last seen traveling east toward Indiana in a white Ford or BMW sedan, with a sunroof and “distinctive dark rims,” Downey said.
Investigators are reviewing footage from the bar to determine if the suspect had previously been to the bar, according to Downey.
A $5,000 reward is being offered to anyone who can help positively identify the person or vehicle, according to the sheriff’s office. Anyone who sees the suspect is asked to keep their distance and contact authorities.
Anyone who has information related to the murder is asked to contact CrimeStoppers at (815) 932-7463.
“Courtney was deeply loved not only by her family and her young daughter, but also by the many patrons and friends whose lives she touched,” Downey said.
“We are fully committed to bringing the person responsible to justice,” Downey said.
Mountan bikers have replaced skiers in early August as a record-breaking ski season comes to a slushy end on August 6, 2023, in Mammoth Lakes, California. After a series of winter atmospheric rivers slammed into this high elevation Sierra Nevada resort, dropping 900 inches of snow at the top of Mammoth Mountain and nearly 700 inches in the village, the ski season was pushed into August for only the third time in Mammoth’s history. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)
(CALIFORNIA) — Two ski patrollers performing avalanche mitigation work at a California ski resort were injured in an avalanche on Friday, the resort operator said.
The avalanche occurred at Mammoth Mountain at approximately 7:30 a.m. local time, prior to ski area operations. The two patrollers got caught in a slide and were transported to an area hospital, the resort said.
One person sustained serious injuries and was being transported out of the area for further care, while the other was evaluated for possible broken bones, the resort said.
The ski area was closed for the remainder of the day amid high avalanche danger, the resort said.
Mammoth Mountain, which is located in Mammoth Lakes in the Sierra Nevada mountains, has received more than 5 feet of snow since Tuesday, the resort said.
Alan Jackson, attorney of Nick Reiner, appears in court to defend Reiner on murder charges on December 17, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Jae C. Hong-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Nick Reiner, the son of slain director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner, has retained a high-profile attorney to represent him as he faces murder charges in their killing.
Alan Jackson, who defended Kevin Spacey, Harvey Weinstein and Karen Read has been serving as the 32-year-old’s attorney. Jackson has been in contact with Nick Reiner since he was arrested Sunday and speaking to the press as the case develops.
“Every inmate has to be medically cleared before they can be transferred to court, he has not been medically cleared. It’s just a procedural issue,” Jackson told reporters on Tuesday.
Rob Reiner and Singer were found stabbed to death in their Los Angeles home Sunday afternoon, and their son was arrested less than a day later. The Los Angeles District Attorney charged Nick Reiner with first degree murder on Tuesday.
The arraignment is scheduled for Jan. 7.
“There are very, very complex and serious issues that are associated with this case,” Jackson told reporters after a court hearing on Wednesday. “These need to be thoroughly but very carefully dealt with and examined and looked at and analyzed.”
“We ask that during this process, you allow the system to move forward in the way that it was designed to move forward, not with the rush to judgment, not with jumping to conclusions, but with restraint and with dignity and with the respect that this system and this process deserves and that the family deserves,” he added.
Jackson also said, “our hearts go out to the entire Reiner family.”
This case is the latest of several major cases that Jackson has taken on in his long legal career.
Jackson spent the beginning of his law career in the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office, where he served as assistant head deputy for the Major Crimes Division. One of his biggest prosecutions was the murder case against music producer Phil Spector.
After one mistrial, Spector was ultimately convicted in 2009 and sentenced to 19 years to life in prison.
Jackson ran for LA district attorney in 2012 but lost the election. He shifted to private practice and amassed a who’s who of clients.
He represented Kevin Spacey after the actor was charged in 2019 of indecent assault and battery. Spacey pleaded not guilty and the charges were ultimately dropped after the prosecutors’ case began to fall apart under scrutiny by the defense.
“This entire case is completely compromised” by the accuser’s decision to take the Fifth [Amendment],” Jackson told the judge in the case. “He’s the sole witness than can establish the circumstances of his allegation.”
Jackson represented disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein in his Los Angeles criminal trial over sexual assault charges in 2022.
The attorney told the jury in his closing argument that the evidence was “smoke and mirrors” and accused the women who testified of being “fame and fortune seekers.”
In a separate case that didn’t involve Jackson, Weinstein had been convicted in a New York court prior to the LA case on similar charges. This was overturned on appeal — he was convicted on one count of engaging in criminal sex but acquitted on a second count in his sex crimes retrial in New York. The judge declared a mistrial on a third-degree rape count.
He was ultimately convicted in the LA trial on Dec. 19, 2022, and sentenced to 16 years in prison. He has appealed that conviction — Jackson is not representing him in the appeal.
Recently, Jackson represented Karen Read, a Massachusetts woman who was charged with killing her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, in January 2022.
A murder trial against Read led to a mistrial in 2024 after jurors could not come to a verdict. In June, Read was acquitted in a second trial on second-degree murder and leaving a scene of personal injury and death charges.
The jury found her guilty of operating under the influence of liquor. The judge immediately sentenced her to one year of probation, the standard for a first-time offense.
