Trump fires chief prosecutor who investigated Epstein

Donald Trump used his presidential authority Wednesday to directly fire a federal prosecutor known for working on some of the highest-profile sex trafficking cases of the 21st century, including investigations of Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Sean “Diddy” Combs.

No explanation was given for the removal of Maurene Comey, who was an assistant US attorney and chief of the Southern District of New York’s Violent and Organized Crime Unit, other than the assertion of removal powers granted to the president in the US Constitution. During her decade as a public prosecutor, Comey led cases against a number of powerful figures charged with sex crimes, including the 2019 arrest of 11 men running an underage trafficking ring — one of only a handful of trafficking prosecutions during Trump’s first term.

“Every person lucky enough to work in this office constantly hears four words to describe our ethos: Without Fear or Favor,” Comey wrote in a farewell email to her colleagues. “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.”

Comey’s removal comes as the Trump administration has been accused of protecting the clients of Epstein, who died in prison while awaiting trial for allegedly facilitating sex with minors for his rich and powerful associates. Comey was a prosecutor in Epstein’s case; Trump was one of his known associates.

The White House almost immediately tried to frame Comey’s removal as unrelated to her proximity to Epstein’s case, and claimed that, instead, it’s her proximity to her father, former FBI chief James Comey, that drew Trump’s ire. Soon after she was fired, Trump administration sources framed it to reporters as the result of an “untenable” situation because Comey’s father was “constantly going after the administration.”

But Comey’s employment was tenable when Trump’s firing of her father in 2017 sparked a two-year special investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. She remained with the DOJ unharassed throughout Trump’s entire first term, was left out of Trump’s mass firing of US attorneys when he began his second term, and had weathered the subsequent purges relatively unscathed.

Despite this, nearly every headline announcing Comey’s termination is couched in a “sins of her father” narrative, adding unsubstantiated complexity to an otherwise straightforward situation. It effectively dooms the story to mainstream outlets’ “both sides” approach, while giving far-right media an opportunity to provide cover for what looks to be a Comey family tradition: a justice-obstructing pink slip from the country’s chief executive.

Whether or not justice is being obstructed is still unclear, as the DOJ’s investigation into Epstein remains closed. Trump is facing pressure like never before, however, to provide something substantial from the investigation into Epstein, and in the event Trump caves, there will be one less investigator on the job who specializes in uncovering the crimes of someone the president considers a “terrific guy.”

This post first appeared in Below The Beltway, a COURIER Substack by Camaron Stevenson.