It was September when MS NOW was first to report on an undercover FBI operation from 2024 in which Tom Homan was recorded accepting $50,000 in cash after indicating he could help agents, who were posing as business executives, win government contracts in a second Trump administration.
FBI and Justice Department officials planned to wait to see whether Homan would deliver on his alleged promise, but the case ultimately stalled after Donald Trump began his second presidential term and made Homan the White House border czar. In late summer, Trump appointees officially closed the investigation after FBI Director Kash Patel requested a status update on the case.
The controversy, however, is ongoing.
On Dec. 30, MS NOW also reported that Homan was the subject of a bribery investigation and that DOJ officials believed he’d struggle to obtain a security clearance. Trump tapped him for a powerful office anyway; Homan didn’t receive a normal background check; and the border czar eventually was granted a security clearance.
Two weeks later, the controversial official sat down with NBC News’ Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press” and faced questions about the controversy.
“Where is that $50,000?” the host asked. “Did you keep it or did you return it?”
Homan replied, “I didn’t take $50,000 from anybody, and that’s a question for the FBI.” He went on to insist that he “did nothing illegal.”
Welker persisted, asking whether there was $50,000 in the bag and whether he returned it. The White House official replied that he was “not addressing” the matter, which he characterized as “an attack on my integrity and my professionalism.”
Pressed further on whether he kept or returned the money, Homan described the matter as “ridiculous,” adding, “I will not answer any more of these questions.”
Asked whether he’d be comfortable with the FBI releasing the recordings of his interactions with the undercover agents, he concluded, “I am not going to get ahead of the FBI. That’s their decision.”
University of Michigan law professor Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney and an MS NOW legal analyst, noted in response to the exchange, “It doesn’t take a trained ear to hear the deflections.”
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Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
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