Overview

• Maurene Comey received a Wednesday memo citing the president’s Article II removal power to end her tenure as senior trial counsel in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
• A decade-long veteran of the SDNY, Comey led the prosecutions of Ghislaine Maxwell, played a role in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation and oversaw the recent Sean “Diddy” Combs trial.
• The Justice Department has not publicly explained the decision, leaving open questions about whether case dynamics or political factors prompted her firing.
• Her dismissal follows other removals of career and special-counsel prosecutors in cases touching on President Trump and his allies.
• The move comes as the administration faces backlash for reversing a pledge to release additional Epstein-related records and for withholding a rumored client list.