It’s a political firestorm that shows no signs of burning out. Allegations that Tom Homan, President Trump’s so-called “border czar,” accepted a $50,000 cash bribe from undercover FBI agents have set off a wave of investigations and partisan clashes in Washington, D.C., with Democrats in both the House and Senate demanding answers—and the evidence—about what they call a “startling episode” of possible high-level corruption.
According to reporting from MSNBC and The Hill, the controversy centers on an undercover FBI sting operation in September 2024. Federal agents, acting on a tip during an unrelated case in Texas, posed as businessmen seeking lucrative federal contracts. They reportedly met with Homan, who was then soliciting payments in exchange for promises to steer government contracts should Trump win the upcoming election. Hidden cameras and audio equipment, according to internal Justice Department documents and multiple corroborating sources, captured Homan accepting $50,000 in cash—delivered in a restaurant takeout bag—and agreeing to help direct contracts to the undercover agents’ companies in a future Trump administration.
But the investigation, which had prosecutors considering four separate criminal charges against Homan, was abruptly shut down after Trump’s inauguration in early 2025. Former acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, who was briefed on the case, reportedly told staff he did not support pursuing it further. In recent weeks, FBI Director Kash Patel requested a status update, after which the case was officially closed, according to Common Dreams.
On September 23, 2025, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Rep. Jamie Raskin, joined by other Democrats, sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Patel demanding the release of all audio and video recordings, photographs, and internal documents related to the investigation and its termination. “Confirmed by six sources and reportedly captured on recordings now in DOJ and FBI’s possession, this startling episode is powerful evidence that Mr. Homan may have committed multiple federal felonies, including conspiracy to commit bribery,” the letter read. “Your reported effort to shut down this investigation appears to be a brazen cover-up to protect Donald Trump’s allies, at a time when the DOJ and FBI are also being ordered to aggressively pursue prosecution of Donald Trump’s political enemies.”
Senate Democrats joined the call for transparency, sending their own letter to Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. They expressed “grave concern” about the Justice Department shutting down the probe despite the FBI allegedly possessing video evidence of Homan accepting cash. “Such allegations of high-level corruption and cover-up demand your close cooperation with congressional oversight and transparency to restore public trust,” they wrote. They demanded preservation of all records related to the investigation and its closure, as well as the release of any recordings of Homan receiving cash.
Yet, as MSNBC journalist Ken Dilanian pointed out, Democrats currently lack subpoena power in both chambers of Congress, making it unlikely that the DOJ will voluntarily hand over the materials. Still, Dilanian noted, they could interview career officials and senior staff involved in the probe to gather additional information. Rep. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat, emphasized the party’s determination: “House Democrats are keeping receipts, Tom. And when law and order returns, we will let people of honor determine whether you did anything ‘criminal or illegal.’”
Republicans, meanwhile, have shown little appetite for scrutinizing the Trump administration’s handling of the case. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, in announcing the Democrats’ investigations, accused Republicans of acting as “a reckless and extreme rubber stamp for Donald Trump’s out of control agenda,” and said Democrats wouldn’t wait until regaining the majority to press for accountability. The offices of key Republican committee chairs—including Jim Jordan (Judiciary), Andrew Garbarino (Homeland Security), and James Comer (Oversight)—did not respond to requests for comment from The Hill.
For their part, the White House initially dismissed the investigation as “blatantly political” and insisted it found no evidence of illegal activity, noting that Homan does not have a formal role in federal contracting decisions. But the response shifted on September 22, 2025, when White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated, “Mr. Homan never took the $50,000 that you’re referring to, so you should get your facts straight, number one.” That same day, Homan appeared on Fox News’s “Ingraham Angle,” where he denied wrongdoing but notably did not explicitly deny accepting the money. “Look, I did nothing criminal. I did nothing illegal,” he said.
Legal experts cited by The Hill point out that such an arrangement would likely constitute a federal crime, as public officials can face bribery charges for accepting payments in exchange for official acts, and even those outside government are barred from improperly influencing federal contracting. Democrats have also questioned the rationale for shutting down the investigation, with Sen. Adam Schiff and other Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats writing to the FBI and DOJ: “It is difficult to believe that an investigation with evidence of Mr. Homan accepting $50,000 cash in a bag—documented by audio and/or video recording—could have been found to lack ‘credible evidence of any criminal wrongdoing,’ as you and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche recently stated.”
The stakes are high, not just for Homan but for the broader Trump administration agenda. Homan currently oversees President Trump’s mass deportation and detention initiative, which has received billions in taxpayer funding through the Republicans’ budget reconciliation package and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. As detailed in an August 25, 2025 letter from Judiciary Committee Democrats, a significant portion of these funds have gone to private contractors, including GEO Group—Homan’s former client. Since January 2025, GEO Group has reportedly received over a billion dollars in new contracts to expand U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention capacity.
Democrats allege that the blocked investigation would have examined whether Homan was selling these contracts for personal profit before he even had the authority to award them. Rep. Raskin, in his letter to Bondi and Patel, underscored the need for public disclosure: “The American people have a right to see the evidence of corruption their government chose to conceal.” Sen. Richard Blumenthal echoed that sentiment, stating, “Release the tapes—Americans deserve disclosure of evidence showing top DHS official Homan accepting a bag full of $50,000 in cash. We need to know why the investigation was dropped—all the facts and evidence.”
With Democrats in the minority and lacking subpoena power, their investigations may not yield immediate results. But, as NBC’s Ryan Nobles noted, should Democrats retake the majority in 2026, their requests for records could quickly become legal subpoenas that the DOJ and FBI cannot ignore. Until then, the allegations against Homan—and the fight over transparency and accountability—are likely to remain front and center in the nation’s political debate.
As the dust settles, the American public is left waiting for answers—and for the tapes that could finally reveal the truth behind the cash-filled takeout bag and the fate of a high-profile federal investigation.
