Judge blocks DOJ’s attempt to move Maurene Comey’s wrongful termination suit out of court
Daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, Maurene Comey, leaves the Albert V. Bryan United States Courthouse on November 13, 2025 in Alexandria, Virginia. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in New York on Tuesday blocked the Justice Department’s attempt to move Maurene Comey’s lawsuit over her firing as a federal prosecutor out of court.
Comey, the daughter of former FBI director James Comey, has joined a private law practice but is suing for unlawful termination after she was fired last year from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
The Justice Department argued that her case belongs before the Merit Systems Protection Board and not in federal district court.
Judge Jesse Furman decided the case belongs with him because Comey was fired pursuant to the president’s executive authority and not the usual procedures for civil servants.
“Maurene Comey was, by all accounts, an exemplary Assistant United States Attorney. In her nearly ten years working at the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, she was assigned some of the country’s highest profile cases, and she consistently received the highest accolades from supervisors and peers alike,” the judge’s opinion said.
“Comey was notified by email from Department of Justice officials in Washington, D.C., that her employment was terminated, effective immediately,” the judge wrote. “She was given one and only one reason for her removal: Article II of the U.S. Constitution, which ‘vest[s]’ the ‘executive Power’ in the President.”
The DOJ, in court filings, has 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.
Comey, who prosecuted high-profile defendants including Sean Combs, Robert Hadden, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, alleged she was fired “because her father is former FBI Director James B. Comey, or because of her perceived political affiliation and beliefs, or both.”
Matthew Perry attends the GQ Men of the Year Party 2022 at The West Hollywood EDITION on November 17, 2022 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for GQ)
(NEW YORK) — The woman reportedly known as the “Ketamine Queen” is set to be sentenced on Wednesday for providing the ketamine that killed Matthew Perry.
Jasveen Sangha admitted in a plea agreement to working with another dealer to provide the “Friends” actor with dozens of vials of ketamine, including the dose that led to his fatal overdose in October 2023 at the age of 54.
Sangha pleaded guilty last year to one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises, three counts of distribution of ketamine, and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury.
Sangha faces a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison. She is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday morning local time in Los Angeles federal court.
Prosecutors said in court filings ahead of Sangha’s sentencing that she should serve 15 years in prison for her “cold callousness and disregard for life,” and that she’s shown little remorse, pointing to recorded jail communications in which, they say, Sangha talked about “obtaining ‘trademarks’ and securing book rights on the events of the case.”
In a sentencing memorandum filed last month, prosecutors said Sangha ran a “high-volume drug trafficking business out of her North Hollywood residence,” where she stored, packaged and distributed drugs, including ketamine and methamphetamine, since at least 2019. Prosecutors said Sangha continued to sell “dangerous drugs” even after learning she had sold ketamine that contributed to the overdose deaths of two men: Perry and, years earlier, Los Angeles resident Cody McLaury. McLaury died hours after Sangha sold him four vials of ketamine in 2019, prosecutors said.
“She didn’t care and kept selling,” prosecutors wrote. “Defendant’s actions show a cold callousness and disregard for life. She chose profits over people, and her actions have caused immense pain to the victims’ families and loved ones.”
Sangha “had the opportunity to stop after realizing the impact of her dealing – but simply chose not to,” which warrants a “significant” sentence, prosecutors also said.
The defense, meanwhile, said Sangha, who has been behind bars since her arrest in August 2024, should receive a sentence of time served due to her “demonstrated rehabilitation.”
“She has maintained sustained and exemplary sobriety, and actively engaged in recovery-oriented and rehabilitative programming while in custody, and has tremendously strong family and community support to facilitate successful reentry and reduce the risk of recidivism,” her attorneys, Mark Geragos and Alexandra Kazarian, wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed last month.
In response to the defense sentencing memorandum, prosecutors continued to argue that Sangha has shown a lack of remorse and claimed she has attempted to minimize the harm she’s caused.
“For example, defendant harmed two overdose victims, but her sentencing briefing does not even mention Cody McLaury and only references Matthew Perry in passing, in the context of defendant attempting to downplay her role in his death and to heap the blame on others,” prosecutors wrote in their response, filed last week.
They also argued that Sangha “expressed a similar lack of remorse in recorded jail communications” – including one on Dec. 25, 2024, during which prosecutors said an individual stated, “We’re gonna sell those book rights,” and Sangha allegedly responded, “Oh I know, the plan is in, the f—— trademark is going down,” according to the filing.
“Even if said in jest, this conversation suggests defendant does not appreciate the severity of her offenses, and instead sees her crimes as a potential future revenue stream,” prosecutors wrote. “It also shows that time in custody has, thus far, failed in getting defendant to adequately reflect upon the grave harms she has caused.”
Geragos has previously said that Sangha “feels horrible.”
“She’s felt horrible from day one,” Geragos told reporters outside the courthouse last year following Sangha’s guilty plea. “This has been a horrendous experience.”
In a victim impact statement filed ahead of the sentencing, Perry’s stepmother, Debbie Perry, said the pain caused by the defendant is “irreversible.”
“Please give this heartless woman the maximum prison sentence so she won’t be able to hurt other families like ours,” she wrote.
In addition to Sangha, four other people were charged and pleaded guilty in connection with Perry’s death: the other dealer, Erik Fleming; Kenneth Iwamasa, Perry’s live-in personal assistant; and two doctors, Mark Chavez and Salvador Plasencia.
Prosecutors said Sangha worked with Fleming to distribute ketamine to Perry, and that in October 2023, they sold the actor 51 vials of ketamine that were provided to Iwamasa.
“Leading up to Perry’s death, Iwamasa repeatedly injected Perry with the ketamine that Sangha supplied to Fleming,” the DOJ said in a press release last year. “Specifically, on October 28, 2023, Iwamasa injected Perry with at least three shots of Sangha’s ketamine, which caused Perry’s death.”
Iwamasa pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death and is scheduled to be sentenced on April 22.
Fleming pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death and is set to be sentenced on April 29.
Chavez and Plasencia have also been convicted for their roles in what prosecutors called a conspiracy to illegally distribute ketamine to Perry.
Chavez, who once ran a ketamine clinic, pleaded guilty in October 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and was sentenced to eight months home confinement in December 2025.
Plasencia, who briefly treated Perry prior to the actor’s death, pleaded guilty in July 2025 to four counts of distribution of ketamine and was sentenced to 30 months in prison in December 2025.
Former film producer Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan Criminal Court on August 13, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Harvey Weinstein is due to return to a Manhattan courtroom on Thursday for a hearing that could determine whether he receives a new trial.
Weinstein was convicted of the 2006 sexual assault of Mimi Haley, a one-time production assistant on the Weinstein-produced reality show “Project Runway.” Haley testified the “unthinkable” happened to her when Weinstein held her down on a bed and forced oral sex on her after she told him no.
The defense said two jurors subsequently claimed they were pressured to convict.
Judge Curtis Farber is set to decide whether he needs to hear testimony from those jurors before deciding whether to grant Weinstein’s motion for a new trial.
If the judge denies Weinstein’s motion for a new trial, defense attorneys said there are grounds to appeal his conviction.
Weinstein has not been sentenced on the Haley count and remains in custody at Rikers Island in New York City after nearly six years of confinement. A representative for the disgraced Hollywood producer said the 73-year-old is “medically fragile and in legal limbo.”
The jury was unable to come to a verdict on a charge that alleged Weinstein raped actress Jessica Mann in 2013. The Manhattan district attorney’s office said it intends to re-try Weinstein on that count, and during Thursday’s hearing, Farber is expected to decide when to move forward.
Mann broke down on the witness stand as she recounted meeting Weinstein when she was 27 and moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting. In March 2013, Mann said she was visiting New York when she accompanied Weinstein to a hotel room. She said he injected himself with an erectile medication and raped her. The defense questioned whether Mann was out for money and said she had consensual sex with Weinstein at other times.
(WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich.) — A suspect is dead after a shooting and vehicle ramming incident at a synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
No injuries have been confirmed, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said.
Preliminary information is that this was an intentional vehicle ramming, sources briefed on the investigation told ABC News.
According to the sources, the driver was seen steering around security bollards, and caused a fire when colliding the car into the building’s front doors.
The suspect was then engaged by synagogue security, the sheriff said.
The Michigan State Police said it’s urging residents to stay away from the area and said police are increasing patrols at other places of worship in the area.
The Jewish Federation of Detroit said in a statement, “We are aware of an active security incident at Temple Israel. Law enforcement are responding. Our Jewish agencies are currently in precautionary lockdown.”
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement, “This is heartbreaking. Michigan’s Jewish community should be able to live and practice their faith in peace.”
“I am hoping for everyone’s safety,” she added.
In New York City, the NYPD said it’s continuing to deploy officers to synagogues and other Jewish institutions “out of an abundance of caution.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
