“Ms. Comey’s termination – without case, without advance notice, and without any opportunity to contest it – was unlawful and unconstitutional,” Comey’s lawsuit alleges. “In truth, there is no legitimate explanation. Rather, Defendants fired Ms. Comey solely or substantially because her father is former FBI Director James B. Comey, or because of her perceived political affiliation and beliefs, or both.”
Maurene Comey, a federal prosecutor involved in a series of high-profile cases related to Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Sean “Diddy” Combs, has filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s decision to remove her from her position.
According to CNN, Comey, aside from being a long-time prosecutor, is also the daughter of former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey.
James Comey, a registered Republican for most of his life, led investigations into Hillary Clinton’s use of private email servers for government communications. Later, Comey expanded a probe into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, attracting President Donald Trump’s ire during his first term in office. Comey was unexpectedly and abruptly dismissed from his position, leading to widespread speculation that Trump had acted out of personal animosity and, potentially, under pressure from the Russian state.
In her lawsuit, Maurene Comey claims that her firing was retaliatory, and that the most likely reason she lost her job is President Donald Trump’s disdain for her father.
“Ms. Comey’s termination – without case, without advance notice, and without any opportunity to contest it – was unlawful and unconstitutional,” Comey’s lawsuit alleges. “In truth, there is no legitimate explanation. Rather, Defendants fired Ms. Comey solely or substantially because her father is former FBI Director James B. Comey, or because of her perceived political affiliation and beliefs, or both.”
Comey notes, just before the end of the business day on July 16, she was notified by email that she had been removed from her position “pursuant to Article II of the United States Constitution.”
However, at the time of her firing, Comey had worked with the federal government for nearly a decade, receiving positive performance reviews and promotions.
Comey claims that, upon speaking to Jay Clayton, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, she was given a brief non-explanation that strongly suggested that her termination was politically motivated.
“All I can say is it came from Washington,” Clayton purportedly told her. “I can’t tell you anything else.”
Ellen Blain, an attorney representing Comey in the lawsuit, conceded that her client cannot be sure that she was fired at the president’s behest—again, largely the reasons for her dismissal were never explained.
“We don’t know who actually made the decision,” Blain told CNN. “We don’t know why the lever was pulled, but we do know there was no good cause to fire Maurene Comey, who has been an excellent [Assistant United States Attorney] in the Southern District for a decade.”
However, Comey’s lawsuit does expand on her belief that the firing was politically motivated, detailing the long and publicly-antagonistic relationship between James Comey and President Donald Trump, both during and after his first term in office. Trump, for instance, has repeatedly called the former FBI director a “liar,” saying that “he should be in jail.”
The lawsuit also makes clear Comey’s belief that this is not the first time her family has been attacked as a direct result of her father’s work with the Bureau: in 2019, Trump allegedly triggered an IRS audit of James Comey’s finances. And, earlier this year, the Secret Service launched an unrelated investigation after Comey made an Instagram post that Trump found distasteful.
Sources
Fired federal prosecutor Maurene Comey sues Trump administration to get her job back
Maurene Comey, prosecutor who handled Jeffrey Epstein case, sues over firing
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