Judge finds Musk, Noem targeted ex-FEMA official

Washington — A federal judge on Tuesday found that billionaire Elon Musk and former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, as well as other senior Trump administration officials, engaged in a coordinated campaign to spread false information about a former FEMA official and impugn her integrity.

U.S. Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick condemned the Trump administration for what he said was “outrageous” conduct targeting Mary Comans, who he said was “professionally targeted and personally attacked by government officials for no legitimate reason.”

Comans, a career civil servant, was most recently the chief financial officer at FEMA until she was fired in February 2025 without cause.

While Comans was told that her firing was an exercise of the president’s power to remove executive officials, the Department of Homeland Security published a press release that falsely accused her of “circumventing” agency leaders to make “egregious” payments to New York City for luxury hotels for undocumented migrants. The Trump administration also accused her of violating an executive order signed by President Trump on the first day of his second term that directed federal agencies to pause funding to nongovernmental organizations providing services to immigrants in the U.S. illegally.

But the decision to continue payments to state and local governments, including two issued to New York City, was made by senior officials at DHS and FEMA, and was approved by employees with the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, the cost-cutting task force that was overseen by Musk, according to court records. Because of that approval, Comans was told to continue the payments to the state and local governments.

Still, DHS and senior administration officials, including Noem, Musk and Corey Lewandowski, who served as a top aide to Noem, made a series of statements about Comans that they knew were false, the court found.

“These facts establish that high-ranking government officials, including then Secretary of DHS Kristi Noem and Elon Musk, engaged in a coordinated public relations campaign to impugn the personal and professional integrity of Ms. Comans,” Fitzpatrick wrote. “For reasons unfathomable to this Court, officials chose to turn the power of the federal government against a singular employee with an impeccable record of public service.”

As part of its campaign targeting Comans, Musk, who served as a special government employee and oversaw DOGE, shared a photo of her on X and falsely accused Comans of engaging in “criminal action” by allegedly funneling millions of dollars to hotels in New York City. The court said Musk knew, or should’ve known, that his DOGE employees approved the payments. Fitzpatrick also said the social media post with Comans’ photo and false characterization of her actions “was clearly intended to make her afraid.” 

“Posting Ms. Comans’ picture served no legitimate governmental interest and was little more than state sanctioned intimidation,” Fitzpatrick wrote.

The judge also said that Noem and Lewandowski provided false information to Laura Loomer, a far-right conspiracy theorist, about Comans with the expectation that she would disseminate it to her social media followers.

“Armed only with false statements, high-ranking government officials undertook a premeditated campaign to impugn the personal and professional integrity of Ms. Comans, a nonpartisan, career public servant,” Fitzpatrick found. “Their intent was to disseminate false and derogatory information about Ms. Comans as widely as possible.”

The decision from Fitzpatrick stemmed from a name-clearing proceeding that was conducted after a federal judge ruled in July that Comans was fired without due process.

Comans had filed a lawsuit in July 2025 that challenged her removal and argued that DHS and FEMA harmed her reputation by falsely accusing her of funneling millions of dollars to New York City for the hotels. 

The judge said all of the accusations leveled against Comans by Trump administration officials, including that she engaged in criminal activity, misspent federal funds and laundered “forbidden funding,” were not true.

“The attacks against Ms. Comans were based entirely on false information, and many government officials knew the accusations were untrue at the time they were made,” Fitzpatrick 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.”

CBS News has reached out to DHS and to attorneys for Musk and Noem for comment.