James Comey’s Fired Daughter Maurene Wins Permission To Sue Trump on Same Day Her Father Is Indicted Over Seashell Threat

President Trump and the new acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, have launched a new fusillade at the former director of the FBI, James Comey, this time for using seashells to threaten violence against Mr. Trump. At the same time, Mr. Comey’s daughter, Maurene, has won a legal victory and may now sue Mr. Trump for wrongful termination.Ms. Comey, a former federal prosecutor who most recently led the case against Sean “Diddy” Combs — who escaped convictions on the most serious charges — to sue the Trump Administration over the circumstances of her firing from the Southern District of New York. A new litigation chapter in a multi-generational clash between the president and the Comeys is underway.The new charges against Mr. Comey, CNN reports, center on an image Mr. Comey uploaded to Instagram last May that featured seashells on a beach arranged in a pattern that resembled the numbers “86 47.” Mr. Comey captioned the image “cool shell formation on my beach walk.” The number 86 can be slang for tossing something out, and Mr. Trump is the 47th president. The former secretary of the Department of Homeland security, Kristi Noem, said at the time that the message amounted to a “call for the assassination” of Mr. Trump.The Department of Justice charged him with two counts lying to Congress with respect to leaks in the investigation of Russian influence in the 2016 presidential election. Those charges, which were filed days before the statute of limitations expired, were dismissed when the prosecutor in charge was ruled unlawfully appointed. The DOJ has appealed that ruling.Mr. Comey has also received a separate subpoena from the DOJ as part of a sprawling investigation into what the Administration calls a “grand conspiracy” that stems from the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. That probe has also targeted the former director of the CIA, John Brenna, who has faced his own criminal referrals and possibility of prosecution.Ms. Comey alleges that her firing in July is attributable to the hostility between Mr. Trump and her father or her “perceived political affiliation and beliefs.” The administration had asked Judge Jesse Furman, an appointee of President Obama, to dismiss the civil suit, contending that Ms. Comey first had to make her case to the Merit Systems Protection Board.. Judge Furman ruled that Ms. Comey’s suit was “outside the universe of cases” that the board was intended to contemplate.The ruling did not touch the merits of Ms. Comey’s arguments, but it does mean that she will get her day in federal court. She is no stranger to that forum, having served for a decade as a prosecutor on high profile prosecutions against the likes of Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, Senator Robert Menendez, and Sean “Diddy” Combs. Judge Furman writes that Ms. Comey was “an exemplary Assistant United States Attorney,” suggesting that he could be sympathetic to her argument for unlawful termination.Ms. Comey’s notice of termination was terse — the only source cited for her firing was Article II of the Constitution, which vests the “executive Power” in the President. Judge Furman, though, writes that Ms. Comey’s “star in the U.S. Attorney’s Office never faded” and that the “Government made no claim that Comey’s termination was for cause or for the efficiency of the service.”Judge Furman notes that “in the spring of 2025, prominent supporters of President Trump began to call for her ouster based on” her relationship to her father. A lawyer for Ms. Comey, Ellen Bain, declares in a statement that “No president can ignore the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and federal law and fire a career federal employee based solely on her last name. We look forward to continuing to vindicate Ms. Comey’s constitutional rights and protect our civil service.” When Ms. Comey asked the top prosecutor in the SDNY, Jay Clayton, about her firing, he responded “All I can say is it came from Washington. I can’t tell you anything else.” A social media influencer and informal adviser to Mr. Trump. Laura Loomer, demanded that “James Comey’s liberal daughter and her Democrat husband” be “FIRED from the DOJ immediately.” Her husband, Lucas Issacharoff, was also a prosecutor in the SDNY.Ms. Comey argues that her firing violated both the Constitution, the Administrative Procedure Act, in addition to other federal statutes that demand a modicum of due process before firing a federal employee. She demands that the DOJ “ immediately reinstate” her and pay an “award of backpay and other monetary and administrative relief as appropriate.”Judge Furman concludes that Ms. Comey’s case raises “fundamental constitutional questions” that are best addressed in Article III courts rather than the administrative tribunal to which the Trump Administration sought to move the case. In an ironic twist, the government’s reliance on the president’s constitutional remit to justify the firing helped persuade Judge Furman to assert federal jurisdiction.

James Comey’s Fired Daughter Maurene Wins Permission To Sue Trump on Same Day Her Father Is Indicted Over Seashell Threat

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