On the left, you see U.S. President Donald Trump shaking hands with James Comey, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), during a reception for Inaugural Law Enforcement Officers and First Responders in the Blue Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Sunday, January 22, 2017. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg). On the right, Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey is pictured arriving at Federal Court for the Sean “Diddy” Combs trial on Monday, May 19, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey).
After Maurene Comey, the daughter of President Donald Trump’s opponent and ex-FBI Director James Comey, was abruptly dismissed from her coveted position by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi without explanation, she communicated with her former peers, condemning the “abuses of power” and describing fear as “the tool of a tyrant.”
This dismissal took place on Wednesday as the Trump administration faced backlash from its own supporters regarding Bondi’s management of the Jeffrey Epstein documents. On that same day, the president referred to it as a “hoax” devised by Democrats, including James Comey, in his statement. This was reiterated through a report that included James Comey among others.
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.
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.”
