Tom Homan, the Trump-appointed “border czar” responsible for co-piloting the administration’s unprecedented immigration crackdown, allegedly accepted $50,000 in bribes from undercover FBI agents posing as business people last year, according to a new report.
In September 2024, the undercover agents recorded Homan allegedly promising to help arrange government contracts within the border security industry once Trump retook the presidency, MSNBC reported on Saturday.
The investigation was halted when Trump took office, and in recent weeks Trump-appointed officials closed the case entirely, MSNBC reported. When asked about the allegations from NewsNation’s Libbey Dean, Homan said they were “bulls—.”
“This matter originated under the previous administration and was subjected to a full review by FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors. They found no credible evidence of any criminal wrongdoing,” Trump appointees FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement to MSNBC.
The Mirror US has contacted the Justice Department and FBI for confirmation on MSNBC’s reporting.
Six sources familiar with the matter told MSNBC that the FBI and Justice Department, under Joe Biden’s administration at the time, planned to assess whether Homan would make good on his alleged promises after Trump appointed him border czar.
MSNBC reviewed an internal summary of Homan’s case, which included a reference to a video capture of Homan accepting $50,000 in cash at a meeting spot in Texas on Sept. 20, 2024. Four sources said several federal officials believed they had a tenable case against Homan for conspiracy, bribery and two kinds of fraud, before Trump’s Justice Department closed the investigation.
Because Homan was not yet a public official when he accepted the money, and Trump had not yet been reelected, his behavior did not meet the criteria for a standard bribery charge, MSNBC reported.
Homan’s appointment to a White House advisor role under Trump did not require Senate confirmation or an extensive FBI background check.
Homan was also the acting director of ICE during Trump’s first term and was a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, which authored the far-right manifesto, Project 2025, that has served as a guide for Trump’s second term.
Homan said after Trump was elected a second time that he had no conflict of interest and would shut down his private consulting business, Homeland Strategic Consulting. Its website bragged of its work with the departments of Homeland Security, Defense, Justice and others, saying: “We have a proven track record of opening doors and bringing successful relationships to our clients, resulting in tens of millions of dollars of federal contracts to private companies.”
“As Border Czar, you are uniquely positioned to help your former business client reap a huge windfall from the Trump Administration’s spending on immigration enforcement,” Rep. Jamie Raskin wrote in a letter last month asking for documents and communications with GEO Group
