Maurene Comey, a federal prosecutor and the daughter of former FBI director James Comey, told her former colleagues in an email that her sudden firing should “fuel the fire” of their work fighting abuses of power.

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, a veteran federal prosecutor who worked on the Jeffrey Epstein case, was fired as President Trump seeks to downplay reaction to the matter.

The Justice Department on Wednesday fired federal prosecutor Maurene Comey, who was involved in a number of high-profile criminal cases including those of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell,

Maurene Comey, the federal prosecutor who worked on both Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's criminal cases, was fired on Wednesday, Politico first reported. The big picture: It was not immediately clear why Maurene Comey was dismissed from her job,

“If a career prosecutor can be fired without reason, fear may seep into the decisions of those who remain,” Comey said in the note, which was obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday. “Do not let that happen. Fear is the tool of a tyrant, wielded to suppress independent thought.”

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 Manhattan federal prosecutor who was fired from the US attorney’s office this week, has prosecuted a number of high-profile cases and followed in her father’s, James Comey, footsteps with her work at the Southern District of New York.

According to sources, President Donald Trump privately vented about having a Comey work in his administration.

Federal prosecutor Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI director James Comey, was terminated by the Justice Department, according to four sources familiar with the matter. It was not clear why Comey was fired.