Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Justice Department has fired Maurene Comey, who is the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey and the federal prosecutor in the Sean “Diddy” Combs, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell cases, according to reports.
Sources shared news of the Manhattan assistant U.S. attorney’s firing with The New York Times, Politico and ABC News, with some saying that President Donald Trump disliked having a Comey working in his administration. He has long called for an investigation into the former FBI director, who initiated the Russia probe during Trump’s first term.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond when reached for comment on Comey, who’d worked as a prosecutor at the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York for 10 years.
Comey’s firing comes as Bondi and Trump face immense blowback for seemingly reneging on campaign promises to release more documents about Epstein and his alleged clients, outraging Trump’s base and setting off speculation about a cover-up to protect powerful people on Epstein’s alleged “client list.”
Trump scolded his supporters for complaining about the decision in a lengthy Truth Social post over the weekend, claiming that the so-called Epstein files had been “written” by former FBI Director Comey, along with former President Barack Obama and Trump’s former presidential opponent Hillary Clinton. He repeated his claims on Tuesday, saying that he, Obama and former President Joe Biden had “made up” the files.
There is no evidence of that.
According to court filings found by The Wall Street Journal, the younger Comey filed a motion in early 2024 asking a judge not to make Epstein-related records public, saying their release may interfere with any potential retrials for Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s girlfriend and associate who was found guilty of child sex trafficking in 2021.
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In early 2024, Comey filed a declaration in federal court asking a judge not to make Epstein-related records public in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Comey said that the release of the records, which included witness statements and other materials from the investigation, could interfere with any retrial of Maxwell.
The case against Combs, which Comey also helped prosecute, resulted in a guilty verdict on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, though he was acquitted on three more serious charges. He faces up to 20 years in prison.