The Tom Homan border tsar is under scrutiny after Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) discreetly annulled an FBI investigation into its possible acceptance of bribes. However, the details were published in a great impact report, which unleashed the outrage of the Democrats.
Key data
The FBI, under the administration of Biden, investigated whether Homan accepted bribes in exchange for promising government contracts for border security companies after Trump’s victory in the 2024 elections, MSNBC reported on Saturday.
In September 2024, homan allegedly accepted 50,000 dollars – in a bag of the fast food chain – at a meeting point in Texas, of FBI officials who passed through government contractors, after the one now appointed by Trump allegedly “indicated that it would facilitate the obtaining of contracts for them” once Trump assumed the position, according to reports.
MSNBC wrote that the transaction was recorded on video, while The New York Times reports that the audio was recorded, although the details of these supposed recordings have not been published.
The government did not accuse Homan at that time and, on the other hand, he waited to see if he granted the contracts once he assumed the position, MSNBC reported. However, after Trump’s investiture, the investigation stagnated and officially closed.
The Times reports that the FBI closed the investigation for doubts about its ability to demonstrate before a jury that the transaction constituted bribery. However, another source declared the Times that the investigation concluded “prematurely” before officials could gather sufficient evidence. The episode aroused the concern that the Trump administration has closed the case intentionally due to the status of homan in the administration.
The Trump administration confirmed the existence of the investigation and its closure, but described it as a politically motivated and “unfounded” investigation, designed to harm the president and his allies, and Homan has denied the accusations.
What did Homan say about the accusations of bribery?
Homan declared to the local environment WWNY that the accusations against him have no basis.
Why was Homan investigated?
Government’s investigation into homan arose from a long counterintelligence investigation that did not sign it directly. In it, a subject suggested that Homin promised government contracts in a future Trump administration in exchange for money, according to The Times and MSNBC.
The Washington Post informs that FBI agents, who acted undercover, met with the executive director of a company related to immigration that hires government services as part of that initial investigation. This executive told the undercover agents that they had to offer homan a million dollars in exchange for the promise of a government contract, which promoted the FBI plan of Urdir an agreement in cash with the future border tsar of Trump.
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What did the Trump administration say?
“This issue originated during the previous administration and underwent an exhaustive review by FBI agents and prosecutors of the Department of Justice,” said the director of the FBI, Kash Patel, and the attached attorney general, Todd Blanche, in a statement in response to the MSNBC report.
They added that the Trump Department of Justice “found no credible evidence of any criminal offense.” The resources of the Department of Justice “must remain focused on real threats to the American people, not in unfounded investigations,” officials continued.
“As a result, the investigation has been closed.” The White House spokeswoman, Abigail Jackson, criticized the investigation in a more direct way, qualifying her as “blatantly political”, stating in a statement that the investigation was “another example of how the Biden Department of Justice was using its resources to attack the allies of President Trump” and stating that Homan “is doing a phenomenal job.”
Could Homan face charges?
Homan was never formally accused, and The Times reports that prosecutors considered that the evidence was “insufficient” to determine that Homin had committed crimes as bribery, citing sources that affirmed that it would be difficult to demonstrate that Homan “had agreed to perform specific acts in exchange for money.”
The fact that Homin was not really a government official at the time of allegedly accepting the money could also be a problem, said the Times, and MSNBC reports that the investigators postponed the presentation of charges until homan assumed the position and could verify if he really complied with the granting of government contracts that he allegedly promised.
Legal experts told MSNBC that, however, Homin’s promise to obtain contracts in the future could have constituted conspiracy to commit bribery.
“In a conspiracy position, the crime is the agreement to commit a criminal act in the future,” Randall Eliason Randall
Also read: what you have to know about the new ‘Tsar of the Border’ of Trump, Tom Homan
What do the Democrats say?
Democrats have strongly criticized Homin after reports on the alleged transaction of $ 50,000, pointing them out as evidence of “unbridled corruption” and demanding their dismissal.
“Who is the undocumented now @realtomhoman?” The representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat for New York, on Saturday, wrote on Saturday.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat by Connecticut, has requested an investigation into the reports, demanding the FBI to publish the recordings of the alleged transaction and writing on Monday: “The public has the right to know every detail of what happened.”
Who is Tom Homan?
Homan is an exagent of the border patrol who led deportations during the Obama administration before being appointed interim ICE director during the first Trump administration.
He was designated as Trump’s “border tsar” after devoting himself to the private sector during the years among Trump’s presidencies, launching a consultancy that worked with companies that sought government contracts related to immigration, including lobbying in his name.
It also contributed to the controversial Plan of Plan Project 2025. Before the latest reports on its alleged payment of $ 50,000, Homan had generated controversy for working in Trump’s deportations after working and receiving payments from some of the main private companies that work with the government in the field of immigration, such as Geo Group, which operates detention centers, and the construction company Fisher Investments, which helped with the construction of the wall border
Financial statements show that Homan won a salary of 360,000 dollars for his consulting work, part of the almost $ 500,000 in labor assets that he declared in total, and received compensation from the Geo Care Division of Geo Group as a consultant. Homan has insisted that he will not hire external companies in his role as Tsar of the border and has closed his consulting business while he is in the Trump administration.
What do Republicans say?
Although the Democrats have expressed their outrage, the Republicans so far have shown little concern for the reports about the alleged bribe of Homin, which suggests that it is unlikely that these reports have a positive impact or press the Trump administration to take measures against the border tsar.
“We don’t care,” published right -wing journalist Megyn Kelly on social networks on Saturday in response to the MSNBC report. “Don’t bother, @realtomhoman, it’s a national treasure.”
The commentator continued to affirm that “there are no credible evidence” of irregularities against Homin, and added in a message to the Democrats: “We do not trust you. We only care to defeat you.”
News hook
The reports on the abandonment of the investigation of the Department of Justice on Homan arrive at a time when the Trump administration and its justice department face a growing scrutiny for presenting legal positions against the president’s political enemies.
The president replaced former federal prosecutor Erik Siebert in Eastern District of Virginia on Saturday, supposedly because Siebert refused to process the New York Attorney General, Letitia James, due to the lack of evidence that he had committed some crime.
Subsequently, the president directly appealed to the Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate his adversaries, such as James, former FBI director James Comey and Senator Adam Schiff, a Democrat for California, in a social truth post on Saturday, stating that “nothing is being done” and telling Bondi: “We can not delay our reputation and credibility ”.
Trump takes a long time to take revenge on his political enemies and the Democrats fear that he will use the Department of Justice to persecute his political rivals, eroding the traditional distance between the White House and the Department of Justice that has existed in previous administrations to ensure that the country’s prosecutors operate free of political influence.
This article was originally published in Forbes US
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