Maurene Comey, a Manhattan federal prosecutor who worked on the criminal cases against Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, was abruptly fired Wednesday by the Trump administration, according to six people with knowledge of the matter.

Though the reason for Comey’s firing was not immediately clear, her dismissal immediately raised questions, given her involvement in the Epstein-related cases that have roiled the White House in recent days.

Comey was informed of her firing in a letter that cited Article II of the Constitution, which describes the powers of the president, according to two of the people.

Comey is also the daughter of former FBI director James Comey, an adversary of President Donald Trump who has recently been under scrutiny by federal law enforcement authorities.

A spokesperson for the Southern District of New York declined to comment on Maurene Comey’s firing. The White House press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, including about whether it had asked the Justice Department to fire Comey. Comey could not immediately be reached for comment.

For more than a week, Trump and his attorney general, Pam Bondi, have been seeking to quell outrage from many of the president’s supporters over the administration’s reluctance to release files related to Epstein’s sex-trafficking case.

Epstein, a disgraced financier, hanged himself in jail in 2019 before he could go to trial and his case has remained an object of fascination, particularly among Trump’s supporters, who have long called for the release of any and all related information.

There was no explicit indication that Maurene Comey’s firing was related to her work on the cases against Epstein and Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 for her role in a yearslong scheme to sexually exploit underage girls.

But as recently as Tuesday, Comey’s role in their cases was highlighted in a Politico article, which noted that she had argued against the disclosure of investigative records.

It stands to reason that Comey, as one of the lead prosecutors in Epstein’s case, would have asked that certain information remain private, as is standard in sensitive cases involving victims of sexual violence. The Justice Department could move to unseal those files, if it chose.

But the firing raises the possibility that Comey is being set up as a scapegoat as the administration fights to move past the scandal.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Jonah E. Bromwich, William K. Rashbaum, Michael S. Schmidt, Santul Nerkar and Maggie Haberman
c. 2025 The New York Times Company