In a historic legal development, former FEMA Chief Financial Officer Mary Comans today filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit in federal court to challenge the Trump administration’s politically motivated termination. Her complaint comes after the administration hobbled the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), the agency Congress created to shield public servants from political retaliation.

Since Trump took office, there has been a dramatic increase in federal employee terminations, an influx the MSPB is not designed to handle. After Trump fired the head of the MSPB, the board lacked the quorum needed to issue final decisions on petitions for review. Wrongfully terminated officials now have no option but to seek justice in federal court.

Comans is represented by Mark S. Zaid, P.C.; Lowell & Associates, PLLC; Burakiewicz & DePriest, PLLC; Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder PC; Fluet Law; and the Democracy Defenders Fund.

The complaint, filed in federal court in Virginia, centers on Comans’ abrupt firing in February without cause. A longtime public servant who served under both Republican and Democratic administrations, Comans was removed with no explanation. After her termination, the Department of Homeland Security issued a public statement falsely accusing her of misusing funds, claims that were never raised during her removal. Her complaint seeks reinstatement, back pay, damages, and a formal hearing to clear her name.

“These firings weren’t about performance, they were about politics,” said Mark Zaid, counsel to Comans. “Firing a career employee without cause, without process, and without explanation is illegal and it’s authoritarian. This case seeks recourse for a wrongfully terminated career employee. But the heart of this complaint is whether any public servant can have their life’s work erased at the whim of a president.”

This complaint is being filed as the Trump administration accelerates its efforts to reshape the federal government to serve the political interests of the White House rather than the public. Coman’s termination is consistent with the authoritarian blueprint laid out in Project 2025, which envisions a federal workforce purged of perceived disloyalty and restructured to prioritize personal loyalty to the president over professional integrity.

“This case isn’t about one federal worker, it’s about ensuring no president, regardless of political party, can turn the civil service into a tool of retribution,” said Abbe David Lowell, Lowell & Associates. “Civil service protections exist for a reason, and they were ignored in Ms. Comans’ case. This lawsuit is the first step toward restoring the essential guardrails that protect nonpartisan, merit-based government.”

“From FEMA to every corner of the government, public servants are being targeted simply for doing their jobs with integrity,” said Norm Eisen, executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund. “The MSPB has been broken by Trump and his administration so there would be no check on his wrongful firings. We will continue to challenge this Kafkaesque maneuver as well as these illegal firings. We cannot let the administration fulfill its authoritarian ambitions and purge the civil service without consequence.”

“Every American should be concerned about whether FEMA and other government agencies can protect them,” said Heidi Burakiewicz, counsel to Comans. “Notwithstanding the hardworking people at the MSPB, Congress never intended it to handle the volume of claims brought by the tens of thousands of federal employees the Trump administration has terminated. Federal court provides an avenue for these employees to have their claims heard so they can get back to work for the rest of us. Mary Comans stood up for what was right, and now she’s standing up again for federal employees and the American people.  We’re proud to support her in that fight.”

The case is Comans v. Executive Office of the President, et al, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.