Judge finds Musk, Noem and Lewandowski ran a coordinated campaign against fired FEMA finance chief Mary Comans

Political Guyentist · October 16, 20261 min read

A judge found that Elon Musk and other officials worked together in a campaign against Comans, CBS News reports. Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick named Kristi Noem, then head of DHS, and Corey Lewandowski among them. Comans was fired without cause in February 2025. The firing was over payments for migrant hotels. Top DHS and FEMA officials ordered those payments, and DOGE staff approved them.

From the recordFitzpatrick: officials chose "to turn the power of the federal government against a singular employee with an impeccable record of…2 details

Fitzpatrick: officials chose "to turn the power of the federal government against a singular employee with an impeccable record of public service."
Separately, court documents reported by The Bulwark show Noem and Lewandowski fed material to activist Laura Loomer. That claim comes from those documents, not from the judge's finding.

What we’re less sure of5 of 8 claims

Medium
The judge found Musk, Noem and Lewandowski spread claims about Comans that they knew were false.
Attributed to the judge through the CBS account. The cited opinion rejects the misconduct accusations, but no SOURCES gloss confirms an explicit finding of knowing falsity. Check pages 1–3 and 8 of the opinion before keeping 'knew'.
Medium
The payments behind Comans's firing were migrant-hotel payments that senior DHS and FEMA officials directed and DOGE staff approved.
Docket 75's dated approval emails and the opinion's payment-authorization findings support who directed and approved the payments. But the Yahoo explainer in SOURCES says SSP reimbursements were not direct hotel payments, so 'migrant-hotel payments' is the desk's own characterization and is conteste
Medium
Court documents show Noem and Lewandowski fed material to activist Laura Loomer.
Attributed to The Bulwark, but The Bulwark does not appear in SOURCES. It rests on that one outlet's reporting of court documents.
Low
Kristi Noem is no longer DHS Secretary ("then-DHS Secretary").
The desk asserts this on its own. No source in the list establishes Noem's current status.
Low
So far only CBS News carries the finding; no second outlet has confirmed it.
An unsourced sweeping negative from the desk. Harwood's X post only relays CBS, and the primary court opinion is itself public in SOURCES.