'Fear is the tool of a tyrant', fired federal prosecutor Maurene Comey
tells colleagues
[July 18, 2025]
By ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
WASHINGTON (AP) — Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI director
James Comey who as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan worked on cases
against Sean “Diddy” Combs and Jeffrey Epstein, said in a note to
colleagues that “fear is the tool of a tyrant” and that her firing
without reason should fuel “a fire of righteous indignation at abuses of
power.”
“If a career prosecutor can be fired without reason, fear may seep into
the decisions of those who remain,” Comey said in the note, which was
obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday. “Do not let that happen.
Fear is the tool of a tyrant, wielded to suppress independent thought."
“Instead of fear,” she added, “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.”
Until her firing Wednesday, Comey had been a veteran lawyer in the
Southern District of New York, long considered the most elite of the
Justice Department’s prosecution offices. Her cases included the sex
trafficking prosecution of Epstein, who killed himself behind bars in
2019 as he was awaiting trial, and the recent case against Combs, which
ended earlier this month with a mixed verdict.
Her termination represented the latest Justice Department effort to fire
lawyers without explanation, a trend that has raised alarm over a
disregard for civil service protections designed to remove attorneys for
political reasons. The department has also fired a number of prosecutors
who worked on cases that have provoked Donald Trump’s ire, including
some who handled U.S. Capitol riot cases and lawyers and support staff
who worked on special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutions of the
Republican president.
She was long seen as a potential target given her father’s fraught
relationship over the last decade with Trump. The Justice Department
recently appeared to acknowledge the existence of an investigation into
James Comey, though the basis for that inquiry is unclear.
Asked about the firing Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline
Leavitt said, “This was a decision made by the Department of Justice."
Maurene Comey had most recently been among the prosecutors in the sex
trafficking and racketeering case against Combs. The hip-hop mogul was
acquitted of the main charges but convicted of lesser
prostitution-related offenses that may result in a prison sentence of
just a few years, an outcome seen by some as a rare defeat for
prosecutions.
But she was successful in numerous other prosecutions, most notably
helping secure the conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell on sex trafficking
charges for helping financier Epstein sexually abuse underage girls. In
that case, she delivered a rebuttal argument during closings, as she did
in the Combs case.
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Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey is outside court during the
Sean "Diddy" Combs' sex trafficking trial, June 3, 2025. (AP
Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
Her firing comes as Attorney General Pam Bondi faces intense
criticism from some members of Trump’s base for the Justice
Department’s decision not to release any more evidence in the
government’s possession from Epstein’s sex trafficking
investigation. Some right-wing internet personalities, like Laura
Loomer, who have been critical of Bondi’s handling of the Epstein
files, had been calling for Maurene Comey’s firing.
James Comey was the FBI director when Trump took office in 2017,
having been appointed by then-President Barack Obama, a Democrat,
and serving before that as a senior Justice Department official in
Republican President George W. Bush’s administration.
But his relationship with Trump was strained from the start. The FBI
director resisted a request by Trump at a private dinner to pledge
personal loyalty to the president — an overture that so unnerved the
FBI director that he documented it in a contemporaneous memorandum.
Trump soon after fired Comey amid an investigation into potential
ties between Russia and Trump’s presidential campaign. That inquiry,
later taken over by special counsel Robert Mueller, would ultimately
find that while Russia interfered with the 2016 election and the
Trump team welcomed the help, there was insufficient evidence to
prove a criminal collaboration.
Trump’s fury at the older Comey continued long after firing him from
the bureau, blaming him for a “hoax” and “witch hunt” that shadowed
much of his first term.
Comey disclosed contemporaneous memos of his conversations with
Trump to a friend so that their content could be revealed to the
media. The following year, Comey published a book calling Trump “ego
driven” and likening him to a mafia don. Trump, for his part, has
accused Comey and other officials of treason.
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Associated Press writer Larry Neumeister in New York contributed.
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