A former authorities official who says she was falsely accused of illegally sending funds to New York Metropolis to e-book luxurious lodges for undocumented migrants — after which publicly ridiculed and fired — stated Thursday that simply days earlier she had been directed by a member of the Elon Musk-led Division of Authorities Effectivity, referred to as DOGE, to make the funds.
Mary Comans, who was the chief monetary officer on the Federal Emergency Administration Company, or FEMA, sued the company and the Division of Homeland Safety, or DHS, on Tuesday.
“I used to be fired illegally by the Trump administration for doing my job, for doing precisely what I used to be directed to do by the Trump political appointees on the Division of Homeland Safety and on the DOGE,” she instructed CBS Information in an interview Thursday. “They instructed me to do these actions, to make these funds, after which they fired me.”
A DHS spokesperson didn’t reply for remark, nor did Brad Smith, the DOGE official Comans says she interacted with.
The lawsuit argues she was “unlawfully terminated” from her place “with out trigger or the due course of required by legislation and the Structure.” As chief monetary officer, Comans was a member of the “senior government service,” the highest-level civil servant.
The lawsuit alleges that DHS and FEMA publicly disclosed details about her
termination that was protected beneath the Privateness Act and that she was defamed by the false portrayal about her conduct. On the time of her dismissal, Comans says the company steered falsely in a press launch that she was a “deep state activist.”
Comans joined DHS in 2004, impressed to serve within the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist assaults. She known as herself “apolitical,” noting that she served each Republican and Democratic administrations, typically deploying to the scenes of pure disasters to assist handle the federal authorities’s response.
“My job is to serve the administration that was elected by the American individuals,” she stated.
She had served as FEMA’s chief monetary officer since 2017 earlier than she was abruptly fired on Feb. 11.
Throughout President Trump’s first days again in workplace, Comans stated the chief management workforce at FEMA was fielding government orders as rapidly because the president may signal them and “have been implementing them to the letter that he anticipated.”
One of many orders Comans carried out required DHS, and by extension FEMA, to freeze cash going to nongovernmental organizations that present providers to undocumented immigrants. Funds that continued got here from a $650 million Customs and Border Safety program created by Congress to reimburse cities for housing and sheltering migrants that had entered into the nation illegally and have been awaiting courtroom proceedings. FEMA administered funds issued by the immigration program, however these funds have been separate from the billions of {dollars} the company spends on catastrophe aid.
On Feb. 5, Comans says she and her workforce met with Smith, one among Elon Musk’s prime lieutenants, who was overseeing the Division of Authorities Effectivity’s work at DHS. Based on Comans, Smith instructed them to maintain the funds from the CBP program flowing.
Comans stated it was “very clear” from the dialog with Smith “that FEMA was doing the correct factor in persevering with” the funds.
“We additionally obtained written steerage from the appearing normal counsel at FEMA that funds to state and locals wanted to proceed beneath the conventional course of enterprise,” she stated.
Regardless of these assurances from Smith, on Feb. 10, Musk posted on X that DOGE “simply found that FEMA despatched $59M LAST WEEK to luxurious lodges in New York Metropolis to deal with unlawful migrants. Sending this cash violated the legislation and is in gross insubordination to the President’s government order.”
Later that day, when she arrived at work, Comans says she met along with her boss, appearing FEMA Administrator Cameron Hamilton. She says Hamilton was additionally stunned by Musk’s tweet and instructed her she had achieved nothing fallacious. Comans then drafted a report, which CBS Information reviewed, that documented her conversations with DOGE.
“I instructed him I used to be going to place collectively an after-action report detailing every of the conversations, the dates, the actions that FEMA took to point out that we have been working throughout the pointers offered to make use of by the Trump administration,” Comans stated. “He thanked me, hugged me and once more reassured me that no person at FEMA can be fired for making these funds.”
Comans stated she had one other dialog with Hamilton that night time to inform him that the funds had been recouped.
“I shared with him that I had efficiently reversed the cost and the funds have been being returned to Treasury as we communicate,” she stated.
The following morning, on Feb. 11, Comans says a colleague walked into Coman’s workplace to inform her that she had been terminated efficient instantly.
“Sadly, my colleague had no solutions to offer me,” Comans stated.
Her title went viral later that morning after conservative broadcaster Benny Johnson posted on X that Comans was “fired for illegally funding migrant luxurious lodges in NYC towards the orders of President Trump.” The submit was unfold by different rightwing accounts.
The Division of Homeland Safety despatched out its press release in regards to the firings shortly after that.
“Efficient instantly, FEMA is terminating the employment of 4 people for circumventing management to unilaterally make egregious funds for luxurious NYC lodges for migrants. Firings embody FEMA’s Chief Monetary Officer, two program analysts and a grant specialist,” the discharge stated. “Beneath President Trump and Secretary Noem’s management, DHS won’t sit idly and permit deep state activists to undermine the desire and security of the American individuals.”
Musk additionally shared a post about Comans, writing that her habits was “prison.”
Comans stated she feels betrayed by the division and company as a result of “they’ve allowed Mr. Musk and others to slander my title, to defame me.”
“The division has sat by idly and in some methods they’ve joined that choir of claiming unfaithful statements about me,” she stated.
Comans desires her title cleared and to be compensated for the injury she says has been brought on. She would additionally take her job again if given the chance.
“I do not know which you could put a worth on it,” she stated. “To me, the No. 1 objective is clearing my title.”
