It’s unclear if Comey’s firing is at all tied to the ongoing controversy over the Epstein files, and it comes as numerous DOJ staff have separately been fired or left the agency voluntarily, with Reuters reporting two-thirds of the staff tasked with defending the administration’s policies have quit.

Comey is the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, who led SDNY from 2002 to 2003. Trump fired James Comey in May 2017 over his handling of the inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s emails, but Democrats have said the move was a result of the FBI investigating alleged links between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI director James Comey who as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan worked on cases against Sean “Diddy” Combs and Jeffrey Epstein, has told colleagues in a note that “fear is the tool of a tyrant” and that her firing without reason should fuel “a fire of righteous indignation at abuses of power.