Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice are moving a wrongful termination lawsuit from Maurene Comey, the adult daughter of the former FBI director, James Comey, to Albany from the Southern District of New York, based at Manhattan, where Ms. Comey worked as a prosecutor. Some 150 miles separate the two cities. 

Ms. Comey, who was fired as her father’s tussle with the Trump Administration was escalating, claims her termination was “unlawful and unconstitutional.” The government, though, is readying a motion to dismiss the suit. 

The SDNY on Thursday recused itself from Ms. Comey’s case, and now the DOJ, in a new filing, is seeking to move the case to the hinterlands of upstate New York. The presiding prosecutor there is the acting United States attorney, John Sarcone, a longtime supporter of President Trump. 

Mr. Sarcone’s  appointment as top prosecutor at Albany has, in separate matters, come under attack as unlawful after his appointment was rejected by a panel of federal judges in his district, jurists who were overwhelmingly appointed by Democratic presidents. 

Ms. Bondi named Mr. Sarcone special attorney to the attorney general and first assistant United States attorney in an unusual effort to keep him in his post. Mr. Sarcone is leading two sensitive investigations into New York’s attorney general, Letitia James — one into whether she violated President Trump’s civil rights in her civil fraud case, and the second into her hounding of the National Rifle Association in the Empire State.       

Ms. Comey alleges that she was fired not because of anything she did but because of who her father is — former FBI director James Comey, who himself faces criminal charges from the DOJ over accusations that he lied to Congress about leaks relating to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. He has pleaded “not guilty” and sought to dismiss the case.

Mr. Comey’s daughter was fired about two months after Mr. Comey was questioned by law enforcement after he posted to social media a photo of seashells arranged in the sand to form the numbers “8647,” which was interpreted as a direct threat to Mr. Trump. Mr. Comey had also been actively criticizing Mr. Trump in cable news appearances.

Ms. Comey, who led the prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, Robert Hadden, and Sean “Diddy” Combs, was fired in July, shortly after she suffered a major defeat in the Diddy case, where a jury acquitted the hip hop producer of the case’s most serious charges. Many legal observers thought the case – which charged Mr. Combs with racketeering and sex trafficking for hiring male prostitutes to have sex with his girlfriend while he watched – was an abuse of laws designed to prosecute the mob and prostitution rings that abused and enslaved women. 

Ms. Comey’s firing also came as the White House was dealing with a damaging leak, to the Wall Street Journal, of a semi-lewd “birthday letter” purportedly written by Mr. Trump for Epstein’s 50th birthday. The identity of the leaker has never been disclosed.

Ms. Comey argues in a complaint filed in September that the DOJ has “not provided any explanation whatsoever for terminating Ms. Comey. In truth, there is no legitimate explanation. Rather, Defendants fired Ms. Comey solely or substantially because her father is former FBI Director James B. Comey, or because of her perceived political affiliation and beliefs, or both.”

Ms. Comey’s lawyers assert that she was an “exemplary, dedicated, and highly decorated public servant who spent nearly ten years prosecuting crime and corruption, without fear or favor … In recognition of her work, the Department of Justice repeatedly promoted and honored Ms. Comey.” The DOJ explained in an email that she was being fired pursuant to “Article II of the United States Constitution and the laws of the United States.”

In May the social media influence and informal adviser to Mr. Trump, Laura Loomer, called for Mr. Comey’s “liberal daughter” and her “Democrat husband” to be “FIRED from the DOJ immediately.” Mr. Trump has said that “If you’re Loomered you’re in deep trouble. That’s the end of your career in a sense.” Ms. Comey’s husband, Lucas Issacharoff, was also a prosecutor at the SDNY. He resigned in May after six years. 

Ms. Comey argues that “the executive branch cannot use Article II” to overrule Congress and remove career civil servants for perceived disloyalty. Such an act violates the Constitution’s fundamental Separation of Powers.” Ms. Comey handled 11 criminal trials and secured over 200 convictions. Ms. Loomer celebrated  on X that Ms. Comey’s firing came “2 months after my pressure campaign on Pam Blondi [sic] to fire Comey’s daughter and Comey’s son in law from the DOJ.”

Now the task of refuting Ms. Comey’s allegations falls to Mr. Sarcone — and he wants more time to think about his next steps. He writes the presiding judge, Jesse Furman, that his office is  “working diligently to familiarize ourselves with this matter and prepare the government’s response” and that “additional time is needed to draft an anticipated motion to dismiss.” 

The government’s deadline to respond is November 21 — Mr. Sarcone wants an extension until December 15. Ms. Comey has agreed to the proposed revised schedule, which could mean that her case overlaps with her father’s criminal trial, which is set to begin on January 5. Mr. Comey  has mounted a double-barelled effort to have that case tossed. He argues that his prosecution is “selective and vindictive” — similar to his daughter’s contention. 

Mr. Comey also argues that the prosecutor pursuing him, the interim United States attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Lindsey Halligan, was unlawfully appointed. Ms. Halligan is also in charge of the prosecution of Ms. James for mortgage fraud. At a hearing last week Judge Cameron Currie appeared skeptical of Ms. Halligan’s credentials and vowed to issue a ruling before Thanksgiving. The government calls the dispute over Ms. Halligan’s appointment “a paperwork error.”

On Thursday a magistrate judge ordered Ms. Halligan to effect the “full disclosure” of grand jury materials to Mr. Comey’s team on account of the possibility of “government misconduct.”