In a saga that has gripped Washington and reignited fierce debate over the politicization of federal law enforcement, the Justice Department has formally closed its high-profile bribery investigation into Tom Homan, President Donald Trump’s so-called “border czar.” The probe, which began in 2024 under the Biden administration and was shuttered in the early days of Trump’s return to the White House, centered on allegations that Homan accepted a $50,000 cash bribe from undercover FBI agents posing as business executives seeking lucrative government contracts.
According to reporting from ABC News, MSNBC, The New York Times, and Reuters, the sting operation was launched after a subject in a separate investigation claimed Homan was soliciting payments in exchange for the promise of steering government business to private companies—if Trump were to win the 2024 presidential election. The operation, based out of the Western District of Texas, led to a dramatic September 2024 meeting in which Homan was recorded—on both video and audio—allegedly accepting a bag containing $50,000 in cash. The bag, in a detail reported by The New York Times and Reuters, came from the restaurant chain Cava.
At the time of the alleged bribe, Homan was not a government official. He was running Homeland Strategic Consulting, a firm that boasted of its “track record of opening doors and bringing successful relationships to our clients, resulting in tens of millions of dollars of federal contracts to private companies.” Homan would later tell The New York Times that he shut down the business just days before Trump took office in January 2025, as he prepared to helm the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign—a role he had publicly discussed months prior. At a July 2024 National Conservatism Conference, Homan declared he would “run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen” if Trump was victorious.
The investigation, according to MSNBC and Reuters, was not initially targeting Homan. It originated from a broader counterintelligence and national security probe. But after repeated references to Homan’s alleged willingness to trade future government contracts for cash, FBI agents set up the undercover sting. Sources familiar with the case told Reuters and ABC News that Homan allegedly promised the undercover agents that, should he join the Trump administration, he could help them secure government contracts. In a twist, Homan reportedly claimed he would hold the bribe money in a trust until after he had completed his government service.
As the investigation unfolded, federal authorities weighed whether there was enough evidence to bring charges. Prosecutors considered counts including conspiracy, bribery, and two types of fraud, as detailed by MSNBC. Legal experts noted that while there is precedent for charging a private citizen who agrees to commit a crime upon taking office, the Justice Department ultimately doubted it could prove Homan had agreed to a specific act in exchange for the cash, especially given his status as a private citizen at the time.
After Trump’s inauguration in January 2025, the case lost momentum. According to ABC News and Reuters, the investigation was handed over to the incoming administration, with Justice Department leadership—including then-acting Attorney General Emil Bove—being briefed on the probe. Bove, who would later become a federal judge, expressed strong opposition to the case, reportedly describing it as a “deep state” operation—an allusion to the belief that unelected officials wield undue influence behind the scenes. Around February 2025, Bove made clear he did not support moving forward, echoing his earlier decisions to drop other high-profile corruption cases, such as the one against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
By the summer of 2025, FBI Director Kash Patel officially ordered the investigation closed. In a joint statement with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Patel said, “This matter originated under the previous administration and was subjected to a full review by FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors. 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.”
The decision to drop the case has not gone uncontested. Some current and former officials, speaking anonymously to ABC News and Reuters, voiced concerns that the move was emblematic of a broader trend: the Trump administration’s willingness to shield high-profile allies from legal scrutiny, potentially further politicizing the Justice Department. These critics also pointed out that the Public Integrity Section—the DOJ unit that participated in the Homan probe—has since been largely dismantled.
On the other side, the White House and Homan’s defenders have been unequivocal. Abigail Jackson, White House deputy press secretary, called the investigation “a blatantly political investigation, which found no evidence of illegal activity, [and] is yet another example of how the Biden Department of Justice was using its resources to target President Trump’s allies rather than investigate real criminals and the millions of illegal aliens who flooded our country.” Jackson added, “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.” She further emphasized that Homan has not been involved in any decisions by the White House to award government contracts.
Homan himself has not responded to repeated requests for comment from ABC News, MSNBC, The New York Times, or Reuters. However, The New York Times reported that earlier this year, Homan stated he would not get involved with specific contract decisions. Homan’s career has long straddled the intersection of law enforcement and immigration policy. He served as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump’s first term and, after leaving government, built a business around helping companies obtain immigration-related federal contracts. Notably, he was reportedly paid between $100,000 and $150,000 to lobby in Texas for Fisher Industries, a construction firm that subsequently secured a $225 million contract to build a section of the border wall in 2024.
The origins of the case trace back to a 2023 tip, when a target of the original FBI investigation claimed that a $1 million payment to Homan “could lead to lucrative federal contracts,” according to The New York Times. During the presidential transition, incoming Trump officials were notified of the ongoing probe into Homan, but by the time a grand jury in the Western District of Texas began to consider the matter, the Trump administration had already taken office and the investigation was on borrowed time.
As for the future, the closure of the Homan probe has left both critics and supporters with lingering questions about the boundaries of political influence, the independence of federal prosecutors, and the fate of public integrity enforcement at the highest levels of government. The story, first broken by MSNBC earlier in 2025, remains a telling episode in the nation’s ongoing struggle to balance the pursuit of justice with the realities of political power.
With the dust now settled and the investigation officially closed, the episode stands as a flashpoint in the debate over accountability, transparency, and the rule of law in American public life.
