Maurene Comey, a career federal prosecutor who worked on the Jeffrey Epstein case and was abruptly fired by the Trump administration this week, warned her colleagues Thursday about the chilling effect such firings could have on their work.
“If a career prosecutor can be fired without reason, fear may seep into the decisions of those who remain,” she wrote in an email that was circulated to her colleagues within the federal prosecutor’s office in Manhattan. “Do not let that happen.”
She called fear “the tool of a tyrant, wielded to suppress independent thought.”
Ms. Comey, who is the daughter of James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director and an adversary of President Trump, was also the lead prosecutor in the recent trial of Sean Combs, the hip-hop entrepreneur who was acquitted of the most serious charges he faced earlier this month.
Ms. Comey was told of her firing Wednesday in a letter from a Justice Department official in Washington who cited Article II of the Constitution, which broadly describes the powers of the president, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
A spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office in Manhattan, where she has worked for nearly a decade, declined to comment.
The office, formally known as the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, has been the focus of Mr. Trump’s intense ire since his first term in office. It is widely viewed as the nation’s premier prosecutor’s office.
Firings of veteran prosecutors used to be unusual. But since Mr. Trump took close control of the Justice Department in January, they have become more common. In March, the White House abruptly fired two career prosecutors in Los Angeles and Memphis, and more recently, it fired more than 20 career employees, including the ethics adviser to the attorney general, Pam Bondi.
Ms. Comey’s firing comes just weeks before the 120-day term of the interim U.S. attorney, Jay Clayton, expires. Once that occurs, the judges of the federal court for the Southern District have the authority to appoint Mr. Clayton to the same post, or they may decline to do so.
It is unclear if or how the Justice Department’s firing of Ms. Comey might affect the judges’ decision. Before joining the U.S. attorney’s office, she worked as a law clerk for one of the judges, and as a prosecutor she has appeared before many of them in her cases.
William K. Rashbaum is a Times reporter covering municipal and political corruption, the courts and broader law enforcement topics in New York.
Jonah E. Bromwich covers criminal justice in the New York region for The Times. He is focused on political influence and its effect on the rule of law in the area’s federal and state courts.
Benjamin Weiser is a Times reporter covering the federal courts and U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, and the justice system more broadly.
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