Trump border czar Homan ‘never took the $50,000’ cash, White House insists of alleged ‘videotaped’ bribe in Cava takeout bag
The White House on Monday strenuously denied that Trump administration border czar Tom Homan took an alleged $50,000 bribe he was reportedly caught on tape accepting from undercover FBI agents as part of an anti-corruption investigation last year.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about the allegations against Homan, who according to The New York Times was handed the stack of cash — concealed in a takeout bag from the Cava fast casual chain — by the FBI agents during a meeting in September of last year. The Times reported that the DOJ under Trump shut down the investigation.
MSNBC reported separately that the alleged handoff was recorded on multiple hidden cameras. But Leavitt flatly denied Homan had done any of it.
“Mr. Homan never took the $50,000 that you’re referring to, so you should get your facts straight,” she said.
Homan, who spent three decades in federal service with the U.S. Border Patrol and served as acting Immigrations and Customs Enforcement director during President Donald Trump’s first term, had met with the agents, who posed as would-be federal contractors, on multiple occasions after they were reportedly tipped off about him allegedly soliciting payments in exchange for future help awarding federal contracts in a future second Trump administration.
According to MSNBC, the probe was conducted under the auspices of the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Western District of Texas with the aid of the FBI and the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section.
An MSNBC spokesperson told The Independent the network stands by its reporting.
After the alleged videotaped meeting, investigators and prosecutors reportedly planned to see if Homan would follow through on his promise to steer contacts to the fictitious company that had paid him the alleged bribe once he became Trump’s second-term border czar, thereby violating federal law against accepting money in exchange for arranging federal contracts.
But since the start of the second Trump administration, Justice Department officials slow-walked and later deep-sixed the investigation. It was reportedly closed in the last few weeks after FBI Director Kash Patel asked agents for a status updated, effectively shielding Homan from any consequences for the allegedly criminal behavior.
Leavitt characterized the anti-corruption investigation that had ensnared her colleague as “another example of the weaponization of the Biden Department of Justice against one of President Trump’s strongest and most vocal supporters.”
She also implied that the probe had been improper because Homan had been expected to serve in a future second Trump administration.
“In the midst of a presidential campaign, you had FBI agents going undercover to try and entrap one of the President’s top allies and supporters, someone who they knew very well would be taking a government position months later,” she said .
Leavitt added that Homan “did absolutely nothing wrong” and said “different prosecutors and FBI agents” from the ones who’d videotaped him accepting the illicit cash had “found zero evidence of a legal action. illegal activity or criminal wrongdoing.”
“The White House and the President stand by Tom Holman, 100%, because he did absolutely nothing wrong and he is a brave public servant who has done a phenomenal job in helping the president shut down the border,” she said.
