By Allan Lengel
In September 2024, shortly before Donald Trump was elected president, Tom Homan was recorded accepting a bag containing $50,000 in cash during an undercover F.B.I. investigation, according to The New York Times. A short time later, days after the November election, Trump named Homan his border czar.
After Trump took office, his Department of Justice terminated the investigation.
The Times reports:
“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, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the case.”
“Mr. Homan’s encounter with the undercover agents, recorded on audiotape, led him to be investigated for potential bribery and other crimes after he apparently took the money and agreed to help the agents — who were posing as businessmen — secure future government contracts related to border security, the people said.”
The Times reported that some said the investigation was shut down because of doubts about whether prosecutors could prove to a jury that Mr. Homan had agreed to perform any specific acts in exchange for the money, and because he did not hold an official government position at the time of the meeting with undercover agents. One person said the probe was shut down prematurely.
