The Trump administration shut down an investigation into White House border czar Tom Homan after he allegedly accepted $50,000 from undercover FBI agents in exchange for offering help to secure future government contracts, according to a bombshell report.
Homan was allegedly the target of an undercover sting in September last year, where he was caught on hidden cameras in an unspecified Texas location accepting $50,000 in cash, MSNBC reports, citing internal documents it had obtained and six sources familiar with the probe.
Some FBI and Justice Department officials believed they had a case against Homan for conspiracy to commit bribery because of the recording of him accepting cash and the apparent promise to help with contracts, MSNBC reports, citing four sources familiar with the investigation. Prosecutors were considering four potential charges against Homan: bribery, conspiracy and two types of fraud, according to a document seen by MSNBC.
Investigators agreed to monitor Homan’s actions once he returned to public office, but the probe was closed in recent weeks by appointees of President Donald Trump after FBI Director Kash Patel requested a status update, MSNBC reports.
Both agencies and the White House dismissed the outlet’s report as politically motivated and baseless.
“This matter originated under the previous administration and was subjected to a full review by FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors,” Patel and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement to MSNBC. “They found no credible evidence of any criminal wrongdoing. The Department’s resources must remain focused on real threats to the American people, not baseless investigations. As a result, the investigation has been closed.”
White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson told MSNBC the probe was a “blatantly political investigation, which found no evidence of illegal activity, is yet another example of how the Biden Department of Justice was using it’s resources to target President Trump’s allies rather than investigate real criminals and the millions of illegal aliens who flooded our country.”
“Tom Homan has not been involved with any contract award decisions. He is a career law enforcement officer and lifelong public servant who is doing a phenomenal job on behalf of President Trump and the country,” Jackson added in a statement on behalf of Homan.
The Independent has contacted the White House, the FBI and the Justice Department for comment.
The federal investigation was launched in western Texas after an earlier probe in the summer of 2024 that claimed Homan “was soliciting payments in exchange for awarding contracts” should Trump go on to win the presidential election, according to MSNBC.
Homan served in the first Trump administration as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In the 2024 presidential election, he was open about the fact that he would likely play a prominent role in Trump’s mass deportation operation in a second administration.
Undercover FBI agents were posing as contractors when they met with an unnamed business associate several times last summer, who connected them to Homan. According to documents obtained by MSNBC, Homan “indicated he would facilitate securing contracts for them in exchange for money once he was in office.”
Hidden cameras allegedly caught Homan accepting the cash on September 20, 2024, according to an internal summary of the case seen by MSNBC.
After the alleged undercover operation, the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Western District of Texas then asked the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section to join the investigation, described in documents as a probe “into the Border Czar and former Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Tom Homan and others based on evidence of payment from FBI undercover agents in exchange for facilitating future contracts related to border enforcement,” the outlet reports.
The Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section oversees federal crimes affecting government integrity. They agreed to join the case in November 2024, MSNBC reports.
Then, in either late January or February of this year, former acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove told Justice Department officials he did not support the investigation. One of Trump’s Justice Department appointees also called the case a “deep state” probe in early 2025, MSNBC’s sources said.
The report has prompted several Democratic lawmakers to speak out against Homan.
“Border Czar Tom Homan was caught by the FBI accepting bribes – on camera – to deliver government contracts in exchange for $50,000 in cash,” Democratic Senator Adam Schiff wrote on X. “Pam Bondi knew. Kash Patel knew. Emil Bove knew. And they made the investigation go away. A corrupt attempt to conceal brazen graft.”
Democratic Representative Pramila Jayapal wrote: “The most corrupt administration we have ever seen.”
Other commentators have also weighed in. Alex Nowrasteh, the vice president of economic and social policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, called for Homan to be jailed if the MSNBC report is true.
“The FBI recorded Trump’s border czar accepting a $50,000 bribe. Then the Trump administration buried it to protect their guy,” Nowrasteh wrote on X. “If true, Tom Homan should be in prison with those who covered it up. Pretty minor corruption for Trump’s 2nd term though.”
