Maurene Comey, who prosecuted Jeffrey Epstein and is former FBI Director James Comey’s daughter, was fired Wednesday from her job in the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, according to two people familiar with the matter who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The reason for her firing was not immediately clear. She did not immediately respond to phone calls and an email seeking comment. Spokespeople for the Justice Department and the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment.
Comey, who had worked in the U.S. attorney’s office for nearly a decade, prosecuted both Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
In recent weeks, President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi have faced a firestorm of criticism over their decision not to release additional files related to Epstein, the disgraced financier who was accused of running a child sex trafficking ring. Prosecutors in the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, including Comey, charged Epstein in 2019 with sex trafficking of minors. He died by suicide in jail while awaiting trial on those charges.
Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking and sentenced to 20 years in prison. She is appealing her conviction.
Comey’s firing also comes as the Trump administration is reportedly investigating her father, whom Trump has long reviled. The investigations apparently relate to James Comey’s role in the probe of links between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia, as well as a recent Instagram post by James Comey that Trump allies saw as threatening to Trump.
And in recent months, Maurene Comey has been the target of renewed attacks by voices in Trump’s right-wing base, including Laura Loomer, who called on Bondi to fire her in May. More recently, Loomer has been leading the MAGA base’s outcry over the Justice Department’s decision not to release further Epstein-related documents.
Maurene Comey was given no explanation for her firing, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss it publicly.
It was not clear whether she was fired by the office’s interim U.S. attorney, Jay Clayton, or whether the order to fire her came from Justice Department headquarters.
Maurene Comey’s title at the U.S. attorney’s office was senior trial counsel. Most recently, she was part of the team that prosecuted Sean “Diddy” Combs, which failed to win a conviction on the most serious charges.
The firing is the latest episode to rock the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office, formally known as the Southern District of New York. Earlier this year, the acting U.S. attorney and several other prosecutors resigned in protest after the DOJ ordered the office to abandon the corruption prosecution of New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
On Wednesday evening, prosecutors in the office, still shaken by that tumult, rallied around Comey, with dozens of them banding together to escort her out of the office for the last time, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.
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