A federal judge in Virginia has ruled that Elon Musk engaged in “state-sanctioned blackmail” when he falsely posted to X last year, accusing former FEMA chief financial officer Mary Comans of “criminal conduct” and “pour $58 million into a hotel for illegal immigrants in Manhattan.”
Musk, the world’s richest man, was working in the Trump administration as DOGE director when he shared these posts on February 11, 2025. The next day, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it had fired Mr. Commands and three of his colleagues, labeling them “deep state activists.”
In an order Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick cleared Komans’ name.
Mr. Comans served as FEMA’s CFO from around January 2018 to February 2025, and also served as FEMA’s operations director from 2020 to 2021.
In his order, Fitzpatrick wrote that “the facts demonstrate that senior government officials,” including Musk, who was a special government official at the time, “engaged in a coordinated public relations campaign to impugn Mr. Comans’ personal and professional integrity.”
“Mr. Musk was DOGE Director and knew or should have known that payments made to state and local governments through FEMA grants in February 2025 were approved by his subordinates,” the judge wrote.
He added that Musk posted a photo of Comands “to his millions of followers while falsely labeling her official activities as ‘criminal activity,'” which Fitzpatrick called “nothing more than state-sanctioned intimidation.”
CNBC has reached out to Musk and White House lawyers involved in the incident for comment.
The Democracy Defense Fund, which was involved in Komans’ case, said in a statement that it was pleased with the decision.
“Mary Comans worked for the federal government for 21 years,” said Craig Becker, the group’s director of affirmative litigation. “Career public servants are people, not pawns, and those who have dedicated their lives to serving the American people should not have their honors tarnished for partisan or political gain.”
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