Maurene Comey issues fiery memo after ouster from US attorney's office

Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey and a career federal prosecutor, issued a fiery memo a day after being ousted from her job at the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), telling colleagues that “fear is the tool of a tyrant, wielded to suppress independent thought.” 

“Do the right thing, the right way, for the right reasons without fear of retribution and without favor to the powerful,” Maurene Comey said in the Thursday message, which was obtained by multiple outlets. 

“For the majority of my nearly ten years in SDNY, fear was never really conceivable. We don’t fear bad press; we have the luxury of exceptional security keeping us physically safe; and, so long as we did our work with integrity, we would get to keep serving the public in this office,” she wrote. 

Comey was fired Wednesday from her post at the U.S. attorney’s office, where she worked for nearly a decade. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a briefing Thursday that the decision came from the Justice Department.

Comey’s father, James Comey, has had a contentious relationship with President Trump. He was fired during Trump’s first White House term. James Comey, a Trump critic, helped kickstart the investigation into alleged ties between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia. 

Maurene Comey's firing was largely seen as connected to her father.

Maurene Comey worked on criminal cases against Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. She was part of a team that brought sex trafficking charges against Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial. Comey was also on the team that handled the prosecution of Sean “Diddy” Combs.

“Our focus was really on acting ‘without favor.’ That is, making sure people with access, money, and power were not treated differently than anyone else; and making sure this office remained separate from politics and focused only on the facts and the law,” Comey said in the memo, adding, “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. Do not let that happen. Fear is the tool of a tyrant, wielded to suppress independent thought,” she added in the message. “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.” 

James Comey recently came under criticism for posting a photo of seashells on the beach arranged to form the numbers 86-47, with the president claiming it was a call for his assassination. Comey called the backlash a “distraction.”