Left: U.S. President Donald Trump, left, shakes hands with James Comey, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), during an Inaugural Law Enforcement Officers and First Responders Reception in the Blue Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017. Â (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg). Right: Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey arrives at Federal Court for the Sean “Diddy” Combs trial, on Monday, May 19, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey).
After she was fired from a prestigious prosecutorial office without explanation by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Maurene Comey, the daughter of President Donald Trump”s rival and former FBI Director James Comey, sent a message to her now former colleagues railing against “abuses of power” and fear as the “tool of a tyrant.”
The firing occurred Wednesday as the Trump administration attempted to put down a revolt among its own base over Bondi’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, which the president on Wednesday called a “hoax” orchestrated by Democrats, including James Comey.
Maurene Comey prosecuted Epstein before he died by suicide in jail and, in the aftermath, successfully put Epstein’s sex-trafficking accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell in prison for 20 years, though Maxwell’s appeal continues.
Most recently, Comey failed to secure guilty verdicts on the most serious charges that Sean “Diddy” Combs faced in the Southern District of New York, where she worked as a prosecutor for almost a decade.
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In a Thursday message to her now-former colleagues in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, according to Politico, Comey said that Bondi terminated her in a memorandum that did not include an explanation — the same way Bondi approached firing DOJ’s top ethics lawyer late last week.
“Yesterday was unexpectedly my last day in the Office. I was summarily fired via memo from Main Justice that did not give a reason for my termination,” Comey reportedly wrote, urging fellow prosecutors to continue to “[d]o the right thing” and not to be afraid.
There was a mass exodus at SDNY earlier this year when the DOJ abruptly moved to throw out NYC Mayor Eric Adams’ bribery case, purportedly so Adams could assist the Trump administration with its immigration enforcement agenda.
For Comey, “[f]ear is the tool of a tyrant” and federal prosecutors should not be influenced by it, even if it may mean they’ll be ousted later on like her.
“But we have entered a new phase where ‘without fear’ may be the challenge. If a career prosecutor can be fired without reason, fear may seep into the decisions of those who remain,” she reportedly said. “Do not let that happen. Fear is the tool of a tyrant, wielded to suppress independent thought. Instead of fear, let this moment fuel the fire that already burns at the heart of this place. A fire of righteous indignation at abuses of power. Of commitment to seek justice for victims. Of dedication to truth above all else.”
