A federal magistrate judge delivered an unusual victory to a fired federal employee Tuesday, officially clearing her name of all the overheated and erroneous allegations Trump officials and confidantes aimed at her.
Mary Comans had been the chief financial officer at the Federal Emergency Management Agency until she was booted last year over claims that she illegally allowed payments to continue to flow to New York to house illegal immigrants, even under the Trump administration.
In fact, Ms. Comans was carrying out the orders of the Trump White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, said Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick.
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But then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Elon Musk, who was heading DOGE at the time, “engaged in a coordinated public relations campaign to impugn the personal and professional integrity of Ms. Comans,” the judge said.
“With no regard for the truth and with no consideration for the personal and professional effect on Ms. Comans, government officials exploited their access to mass media outlets to broadcast false information,” he said. “The purpose of this order is, to the best of this court’s ability, to correct the public record and establish as a matter of law that the statements made by these officials about Ms. Comans were objectively and demonstrably false.”
Ms. Comans had sought to have her job restored, but that has not happened.
Instead, the judge offered her the name-clearing opportunity. He said the government didn’t dispute the facts about officials’ behavior.
Judge Fitzpatrick said Ms. Comans was a career official at FEMA who’d been promoted by administrations of both parties, and had attained senior executive service status.
He called her “an exemplary public servant.”
President Trump had made the payments to care for illegal immigrants during the Biden term a major complaint during his 2024 presidential campaign.
Once in office, he issued an executive order ceasing the payments.
But Judge Fitzpatrick said that order appeared to apply to nongovernmental organizations and not state and local governments.
Even so, Mr. Comans became a target when Trump confidantes said she allowed a $59 million payment to New York City to be made.
Judge Fitzpatrick said Ms. Noem, Mr. Musk and other Trump officials knew that to be an untrue statement even as they allowed it to spread, originally through pro-Trump blogger Laura Loomer.
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