The Trump administration has another problem to deal with: The Homan Files | ‘Border czar’ allegedly caught accepting $50,000

Democrats in Congress are calling for the release of an alleged video that reportedly shows Tom Homan taking a five-figure bribe from undercover FBI agents in the months before he became U.S. President Donald Trump’s ‘border czar’.

At the weekend, MSNBC reported that Homan was filmed accepting $50,000 from agents posing as business executives in September 2024, in exchange for help in securing border enforcement-related government contracts if Trump won a second presidency.

Trump’s border enforcer-in-chief

Homan, who served as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during Trump’s first term, was announced as the Republican’s border chief in the days after the real estate magnate-turned-politician clinched a White House return in November’s election.

The 63-year-old Homan has led a major immigration crackdown in the U.S. since Trump was sworn in as president - succeeding the Democrat Joe Biden - at the start of 2025.

“Trump appointees officially closed the investigation”

On Saturday, MSNBC’s Carol Leonig and Ken Dilanian wrote: “The FBI and the Justice Department planned to wait to see whether Homan would deliver on his alleged promise once he became the nation’s top immigration official.

“But the case indefinitely stalled soon after Donald Trump became president again in January, according to six sources familiar with the matter.

“In recent weeks, Trump appointees officially closed the investigation, after FBI Director Kash Patel requested a status update on the case, two of the people said.”

“Mr. Homan never took the $50,000″

In a news conference on Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted that Homan has done “absolutely nothing wrong”.

“Mr. Homan never took the $50,000 that you’re referring to, so you should get your facts straight, number one,” Leavitt told reporters.

“Number two, this was another example of the weaponization of the Biden Department of Justice against one of President Trump’s strongest and most vocal supporters.

“In the midst of a presidential campaign, you had FBI agents going under cover to try and entrap one of the president’s top allies and supporters, someone who they knew very well would be taking a government position months later.”

Leavitt added that Justice Department and FBI probes carried out since Trump took office “found zero evidence of illegal activity or criminal wrongdoing”.

“The White House and the president stand by Tom Homan 100%, because he did absolutely nothing wrong,” Leavitt said. “He is a brave public servant who has done a phenomenal job in helping the president shut down the border.”

Speaking to Fox News later on Monday, Homan said: “I did nothing criminal. I did nothing illegal. It’s hit piece after hit piece after hit piece.”

“Appears to be a brazen cover-up”

However, House Democrats want the release of the alleged FBI tape. Led by Jamie Raskin, a congressman from Maryland, Dems on the House Judiciary Committee have written to Patel and Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, to demand the purported “explosive recordings” be made public.

In a statement on Tuesday, Committee Democrats denounced what “appears to be a brazen cover-up to protect Donald Trump’s allies”.

“This startling episode is powerful evidence that Mr. Homan may have committed multiple federal felonies, including conspiracy to commit bribery,” the press release said.

“A lot of us smell a rat”

In an interview with CNN this week, Raskin said: “If there’s no crime and they really think that the whole thing should be quashed, then they should not be afraid of showing [the alleged recordings] to the public.

“But a lot of us smell a rat here and believe that this is an attempt to cover up yet another criminal offense associated with somebody in the Trump administration.”

Democrats in Congress’s upper chamber have also called for the reported video to be released.

“You have touted your commitment to transparency and have released records from other closed investigations,” read a letter to Patel from nine Democratic senators on Tuesday. “This case should be no different.”

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