Tom Homan, now the president’s border czar, was recorded final 12 months accepting a bag with $50,000 in cash by undercover FBI brokers in an investigation the Trump Justice Department later closed, The New York Times reported Saturday.
The September 2024 cost arose from a probe that was not concentrating on Homan, The Times reported, citing individuals aware of 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 aware of the matter advised NCS that Homan accepted a cash cost in a sting operation.
The cash was inside a bag from the fast-casual chain Cava, The Times reported. MSNBC reported earlier on the investigation.
Investigators started trying into Homan after the unique goal of a case urged {that a} cost to Homan may result in federal border safety contracts, The Times reported. On the tape of the September 2024 assembly, The New York Times 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 12 months, over doubts prosecutors may show Homan — who served as performing director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement within the president’s first time period — had agreed to a selected act in trade for the cash and since he was not in a authorities place on the time.
FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche stated the matter, which originated underneath the Biden administration, was topic to a full evaluation by officers with the FBI and DOJ, who “found no credible evidence of any criminal wrongdoing.”
“The Department’s resources must remain focused on real threats to the American people, not baseless investigations. As a result, the investigation has been closed,” they stated in an announcement Saturday.
NCS has tried to achieve Homan for remark. Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, slammed the matter as a “blatantly political investigation” and known as Homan “a career law enforcement officer and lifelong public servant.”
“This blatantly political investigation, which found no evidence of illegal activity, is yet another example of how the Biden Department of Justice was using its resources to target President Trump’s allies rather than investigate real criminals and the millions of illegal aliens who flooded our country,” she stated 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 News 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 National Convention in July 2024. Speaking from the stage in Milwaukee, Homan warned immigrants who “Joe Biden has released into our country in violation of federal law: You better start packing now. You’re damn right.”
Less than per week after Trump received reelection, he introduced Homan would function his administration’s border czar.
NCS’s Evan Perez contributed to this report.