FEMA CFO fired over payments to New York City for migrants says she had DOGE sign-off
Source: CBS News
Updated on: March 6, 2025 / 9:05 PM EST
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."
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mary-comans-fired-fema-cfo-musk-doge-migrants-new-york-city/
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