Maurene Comey, prosecutor in Epstein and Combs case, prosecuted after his daughter of former FBI director was fired
Maurene Comey, a federal prosecutor involved in the cases of Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Sean Combs, has sued the Trump administration for firing this summer, posing another legal challenge to the Justice Department’s treatment of professional officials.
Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, alleged in a lawsuit filed in a federal court in Manhattan on Monday that she had no explanation for the termination and said it was done in revenge on her father’s daughter.
“Ms Comey’s termination – without reason, without advance notice, without any chance to play the game – is illegal and unconstitutional,” the lawsuit states. The lawsuit states, “In fact, there is no reasonable explanation. Instead, the defendant is only or essentially because her father is former FBI Director James B. Comey.
Comey is one of several federal civil servants fired by the Trump administration, who filed a lawsuit to restore office or seek salaries to challenge the government’s full removal of FBI agents and other federal prosecutors without notice or compliance with legal proceedings.
The Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern New York area declined to comment.
Comey was notified by email before 5 p.m. on July 16 that she had been removed from her post “under the Article 2 Constitution”, the lawsuit said.
She said there is no reason to terminate her termination in nearly a decade of positive performance reviews and promotions.
Jay Clayton, U.S. attorney for the southern New York region, told Comey that according to the lawsuit, “I can only say it comes from Washington. I can’t tell you anything.”
“We don’t know who really made the decision,” Comey’s attorney Ellen Blain told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Monday. “We don’t know why we’re going to pull the leverage, but we do know there’s no good reason to fire Maurene Comey, who has been a great ausa in the southern region for a decade.”
Brian said on “outside” Comey filed a case to “prove” her personal rights as well as protecting other federal employees.
When she fired CNN, one familiar with the situation said that given that her father, James Comey, was a less-doubted person in this administration.
Comey joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in November 2015 and was promoted to chief of several units, but eventually asked to rejoin her colleagues so she could return to court.
Her final trial was a prosecution of Sean Diddy’s comb, who was convicted in July on two counts of traffic in prostitution. He was acquitted for extortion and two counts of sex trafficking. She led the inquiry from several major witnesses, including Combs’ ex-girlfriend, who testified in pseudonym.
In addition to investigating and prosecuting Epstein and Maxwell, Comey also sued gynecologist Robert Hadden for sexual abuse patients.
According to her lawsuit, Comey was fired the next day after she was asked to lead her in a “major public corruption case.”
This story has been updated and additional details are provided.
CNN’s Piper Hudspeth Blackburn contributed to the report.
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