Federal investigators recorded Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, accepting $50,000 in cash during an FBI sting, but the Justice Department shut the case down once President Donald Trump returned to office.
According to documents reviewed by MSNBC, undercover agents posing as contractors filmed Homan taking the money in Texas on Sept. 20, 2024.
Sources said Homan indicated he could help the agents win government contracts if Trump were reelected.
The FBI planned to monitor Homan once he was back in office. Prosecutors in Texas were working with the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section to build the case.
But after Trump took office in January 2025, officials close to him labeled the probe “deep state.” Within weeks, the case was stalled. In recent days, Trump appointees formally shut it down.
FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche dismissed the matter. “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,” they said.
The White House called the case “blatantly political.” Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson said, “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.”
Homan himself did not respond to questions about the sting, per NBC News.
At the time of the meeting, Homan was running a private consulting business offering to help contractors secure border enforcement deals. The FBI said a subject in another probe tipped them off that Homan was seeking payments in exchange for future contracts.
Hidden cameras showed Homan accepting the $50,000 while discussing the possibility of steering contracts once he had a senior role in a second Trump administration.
Some investigators believed they already had enough for a criminal case. Four sources told MSNBC they saw strong grounds for conspiracy to commit bribery. But prosecutors debated how to proceed since Homan was not yet a public official when the money changed hands.
Legal experts said such a case could hinge on conspiracy statutes. “If someone who is not yet a public official, but expects to be, takes bribes in exchange for agreeing to take official acts after they are appointed, they can’t be charged with bribery. But they can be charged with conspiracy,” said former prosecutor Randall Eliason.
Homan was announced as Trump’s border czar in November 2024, a role not requiring Senate confirmation. That appointment raised alarms among Democrats who pointed to his financial ties to border contractors.
Rep. Jamie Raskin wrote that Homan was “uniquely positioned to help your former business client reap a huge windfall from the Trump Administration’s spending on immigration enforcement.”
Despite the FBI’s footage, Justice officials under Trump ordered the case closed. For critics, the move shows political interference in a corruption probe involving one of Trump’s closest allies.
