The Justice Department team that is leading the prosecution of alleged child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein includes the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey.
Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said at a press conference Monday that Maurene Comey is part of the public corruption unit handling the case against the well-connected and wealthy businessman.
Maurene Comey, an assistant U.S. attorney, was named alongside Alex Rossmiller and Alison Moe as the prosecutors assisting Berman with the case. James Comey, who was fired as FBI director in 2017 by President Trump, had been a U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York before he became deputy attorney general under President George W. Bush.
Last year, James Comey said his wife Patrice “very much wanted Hillary Clinton to be the first woman president” and that he was pretty sure that his four daughters, if not all five of his children, had also wanted Clinton to defeat Trump in 2016.
“There was a lot of passion in this house for Hillary Clinton,” Comey said.
Comey also said his wife and daughters participated in the Women’s March the day after Trump’s inauguration.
Epstein was charged by prosecutors with conspiracy and with sex trafficking of underage girls, and faces up to 45 years behind bars. Prosecutors consider him a flight risk and have asked a judge to keep Epstein behind bars pending his trial.
During the raid on Epstein’s Manhattan mansion, investigators say they seized an “extraordinary volume” of photographs of apparently underage girls.
