“Who’s the Illegal Now, Tom Homan?” Lawmakers Slam Trump’s Border Czar Over Alleged $50,000 Bribe

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Accusations of supreme corruption, demands for an investigation, and calls for impeachment proceedings for several high-level Trump administration officials erupted on Saturday after it was reported that a Justice Department probe into Tom Homan, who serves as President Donald Trump’s border czar, was dropped despite documented evidence he accepted a bribe of $50,000 delivered in a bag by undercover FBI agents as part of a sting operation.

Citing multiple people “familiar with the probe,” a review of internal documents, MSNBC was the first to report that during “an undercover operation last year, the FBI recorded Tom Homan […] accepting $50,000 in cash after indicating he could help the agents—who were posing as business executives—win government contracts in a second Trump administration.”

Accusations of supreme corruption, demands for an investigation, and calls for impeachment proceedings for several high-level Trump administration officials erupted on Saturday after it was reported that a Justice Department probe into Tom Homan, who serves as President Donald Trump’s border czar, was dropped despite documented evidence he accepted a bribe of $50,000 delivered in a bag by undercover FBI agents as part of a sting operation.

Citing multiple people “familiar with the probe,” a review of internal documents, MSNBC was the first to report that during “an undercover operation last year, the FBI recorded Tom Homan […] accepting $50,000 in cash after indicating he could help the agents—who were posing as business executives—win government contracts in a second Trump administration.”

The New York Times, which also spoke to people familiar with the case, reported that the “cash payment, which was made inside a bag from the food chain Cava, grew out of a long-running counterintelligence investigation that had not been targeting Mr. Homan,” and that the encounter, as MSNBC also reported, was recorded. The Times indicates that the recording was audio, while MSNBC’s version of the evidence suggests that video footage exists.

“Americans deserve disclosure of evidence showing top DHS official Homan accepting a bag full of $50,000 in cash We need to know why the investigation was dropped—all the facts and evidence.” —Sen. Richard Blumenthal

The case involves both FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney Pam Bondi, who heads the Justice Department. Both were appointed by Trump and are deeply loyal to him politically. The revelations prompted Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) to declare that Trump’s second term is the “most corrupt administration we have ever seen.”

Matt Duss, executive vice-president at the Center for International Policy, asked: “Seriously though, has anyone ever been handed $50,000 cash in a paper bag for something legitimate?”

While that’s not a legal standard, news of the dropped case against Homan, given his central role in Trump’s ramped-up attacks on migrants and communities nationwide, sparked an array of outrage, many questions, and a demand for more answers from the Justice Department.

“Who’s the illegal now, Tom Homan?” asked Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).