Tom Homan, now the president’s border czar, was recorded final yr accepting a bag with $50,000 in money by undercover FBI brokers in an investigation the Trump Justice Division later closed, The New York Times reported Saturday.
The September 2024 cost arose from a probe that was not focusing on Homan, The Occasions reported, citing individuals conversant in the case. Homan was investigated for potential bribery and different crimes after he agreed to assist the undercover brokers, posing as businessmen, safe authorities contracts in a second Trump administration, the report says.
An individual conversant in the matter instructed CNN that Homan accepted a money cost in a sting operation.
The money was inside a bag from the fast-casual chain Cava, The Occasions reported. MSNBC reported earlier on the investigation.
Investigators started wanting into Homan after the unique goal of a case urged {that a} cost to Homan might result in federal border safety contracts, The Occasions reported. On the tape of the September 2024 assembly, The New York Occasions reported, Homan appeared to agree to assist the undercover brokers win contracts if Donald Trump received reelection.
The DOJ shut down the case after Trump started his second time period this yr, over doubts prosecutors might show Homan — who served as appearing director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement within the president’s first time period — had agreed to a particular act in change for the money and since he was not in a authorities place on the time.
FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Legal professional Basic Todd Blanche mentioned the matter, which originated underneath the Biden administration, was topic to a full evaluation by officers with the FBI and DOJ, who “discovered no credible proof of any legal wrongdoing.”
“The Division’s assets should stay centered on actual threats to the American individuals, not baseless investigations. In consequence, the investigation has been closed,” they mentioned in a press release Saturday.
CNN has tried to achieve Homan for remark. Abigail Jackson, a White Home spokesperson, slammed the matter as a “blatantly political investigation” and referred to as Homan “a profession regulation enforcement officer and lifelong public servant.”
“This blatantly political investigation, which discovered no proof of criminality, is yet one more instance of how the Biden Division of Justice was utilizing its assets to focus on President Trump’s allies quite than examine actual criminals and the tens of millions of unlawful aliens who flooded our nation,” she mentioned in a Saturday assertion.
A profession regulation enforcement officer, Homan served as the general public face of the primary Trump administration’s aggressive efforts to step up immigration enforcement earlier than retiring in 2018.
After leaving authorities, he grew to become a Fox Information contributor. He additionally contributed to Project 2025, the sweeping conservative blueprint for the subsequent Republican president, which Trump distanced himself from throughout his marketing campaign.
In an indication of his affect in Trump’s orbit, Homan addressed the Republican Nationwide Conference in July 2024. Talking from the stage in Milwaukee, Homan warned immigrants who “Joe Biden has launched into our nation in violation of federal regulation: You higher begin packing now. You’re rattling proper.”
Lower than every week after Trump received reelection, he introduced Homan would function his administration’s border czar.
CNN’s Evan Perez contributed to this report.
