A former government official who says she was falsely accused of illegally sending funds to New York City to book luxury hotels for undocumented migrants — and then publicly ridiculed and fired — said Thursday that just days earlier she had been directed by a member of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, to make the payments.
Mary Comans, who was the chief financial officer at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, sued the agency and the Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, on Tuesday.
“I was fired illegally by the Trump administration for doing my job, for doing exactly what I was directed to do by the Trump political appointees at the Department of Homeland Security and at the DOGE,” she told CBS News in an interview Thursday. “They told me to do these actions, to make these payments, and then they fired me.”
A DHS spokesperson did not respond for comment, nor did Brad Smith, the DOGE official Comans says she interacted with.
The lawsuit argues she was “unlawfully terminated” from her position “without cause or the due process required by law and the Constitution.” As chief financial officer, Comans was a member of the “senior executive service,” the highest-level civil servant.
The lawsuit alleges that DHS and FEMA publicly disclosed information about her
termination that was protected under the Privacy Act and that she was defamed by the false portrayal about her conduct. At the time of her dismissal, Comans says the agency suggested falsely in a press release that she was a “deep state activist.”
Comans joined DHS in 2004, inspired to serve in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. She called herself “apolitical,” noting that she served both Republican and Democratic administrations, often deploying to the scenes of natural disasters to help manage the federal government’s response.
“My job is to serve the administration that was elected by the American people,” she said.
She had served as FEMA’s chief financial officer since 2017 before she was abruptly fired on Feb. 11.
During President Trump’s first days back in office, Comans said the executive leadership team at FEMA was fielding executive orders as quickly as the president could sign them and “were implementing them to the letter that he expected.”
One of the orders Comans carried out required DHS, and by extension FEMA, to freeze money going to nongovernmental organizations that provide services to undocumented immigrants. Payments that continued came from a $650 million Customs and Border Protection program created by Congress to reimburse cities for housing and sheltering migrants that had entered into the country illegally and were awaiting court proceedings. FEMA administered payments issued by the immigration program, but those funds were separate from the billions of dollars the agency spends on disaster relief.
On Feb. 5, Comans says she and her team met with Smith, one of Elon Musk’s top lieutenants, who was overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency’s work at DHS. According to Comans, Smith instructed them to keep the funds from the CBP program flowing.
Comans said it was “very clear” from the conversation with Smith “that FEMA was doing the right thing in continuing” the payments.
“We also received written guidance from the acting general counsel at FEMA that payments to state and locals needed to continue under the normal course of business,” she said.
Despite those assurances from Smith, on Feb. 10, Musk posted on X that DOGE “just discovered that FEMA sent $59M LAST WEEK to luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants. Sending this money violated the law and is in gross insubordination to the President’s executive order.”
Later that day, when she arrived at work, Comans says she met with her boss, acting FEMA Administrator Cameron Hamilton. She says Hamilton was also surprised by Musk’s tweet and told her she had done nothing wrong. Comans then drafted a report, which CBS News reviewed, that documented her conversations with DOGE.
“I told him I was going to put together an after-action report detailing each of the conversations, the dates, the actions that FEMA took to show that we were operating within the guidelines provided to use by the Trump administration,” Comans said. “He thanked me, hugged me and again reassured me that nobody at FEMA would be fired for making these payments.”
Comans said she had another conversation with Hamilton that night to tell him that the funds had been recouped.
“I shared with him that I had successfully reversed the payment and the funds were being returned to Treasury as we speak,” she said.
The next morning, on Feb. 11, Comans says a colleague walked into Coman’s office to tell her that she had been terminated effective immediately.
“Unfortunately, my colleague had no answers to provide me,” Comans said.
Her name went viral later that morning after conservative broadcaster Benny Johnson posted on X that Comans was “fired for illegally funding migrant luxury hotels in NYC against the orders of President Trump.” The post was spread by other rightwing accounts.
The Department of Homeland Security sent out its press release about the firings shortly after that.
“Effective immediately, FEMA is terminating the employment of four individuals for circumventing leadership to unilaterally make egregious payments for luxury NYC hotels for migrants. Firings include FEMA’s Chief Financial Officer, two program analysts and a grant specialist,” the release said. “Under President Trump and Secretary Noem’s leadership, DHS will not sit idly and allow deep state activists to undermine the will and safety of the American people.”
Musk also shared a post about Comans, writing that her behavior was “criminal.”
Comans said she feels betrayed by the department and agency because “they have allowed Mr. Musk and others to slander my name, to defame me.”
“The department has sat by idly and in some ways they have joined that choir of saying untrue statements about me,” she said.
Comans wants her name cleared and to be compensated for the damage she says has been caused. She would also take her job back if given the opportunity.
“I don’t know that you can put a price on it,” she said. “To me, the No. 1 goal is clearing my name.”
