Federal prosecutor Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, was fired by the Justice Department on Wednesday, according to four sources familiar with the matter.
It was not clear why. One of the sources said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York cited Article II of the Constitution, which establishes the executive power of the president.
Nick Biase, a spokesperson for the Southern District of New York, declined to comment.
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Politico first reported the termination.
Comey prosecuted Sean “Diddy” Combs during his sex trafficking trial this year. She also played a role in the prosecution of the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender, and the prosecution and conviction of his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.
President Donald Trump is under intensifying political pressure from his MAGA base to release information related to the Epstein investigation. He has repeatedly defended Attorney General Pam Bondi’s decision last week to decline to release any Epstein-related documents.
Last week, the Justice Department and the FBI released a two-page memo that contradicted multiple Epstein-related theories, some of which have been propagated by Trump himself; his FBI director, Kash Patel; and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino.
The memo said an exhaustive FBI investigation had found no evidence that a list of Epstein’s clients, including prominent politicians and business figures, was being kept secret. It found no evidence that Epstein blackmailed those people or that evidence to prosecute any of them existed.
It also found that Epstein died by suicide in a federal jail in New York in 2019, rebutting assertions by some that he was murdered.
“This systematic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list,’” the Justice Department-FBI memo said. “There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions.”
Trump’s repeated efforts to persuade his supporters to stop focusing on the Epstein case have failed to quell demands from MAGA supporters for more transparency. In a setback for Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., supported multiple House members’ demands to release more Epstein documents.
Some are likely to see Comey’s firing as an effort to shift blame. On Tuesday, Trump, without citing evidence, accused James Comey, as well as former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, of making up Epstein documents.
“I would say that, you know, these files were made up by Comey, they were made up by Obama, they were made up by the Biden,” Trump told members of the media at the White House.
The Justice Department prosecution of Epstein, as well as his suicide, occurred in 2019 during Trump’s first term. James Comey, Biden and Obama were out of power at that time. Trump’s second attorney general, William Barr, oversaw the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which operated the jail where Epstein died, and the indictment of Epstein.
James Comey has been a frequent target for Trump, who fired him as director o the FBI in 2017. James Comey played a central role in a probe of Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
