Top Democrats in both the House and Senate are demanding that the Department of Justice and the FBI turn over any video and audio recordings from the investigation into border czar Tom Homan.
Donald Trump’s top immigration official allegedly accepted $50,000 in cash in September 2024 from undercover agents posing as businessmen in exchange for promising to award contracts should the president win the 2024 election.
The bribery investigation, first reported by MSNBC, was reportedly closed when Trump returned to office after being reviewed by the president’s new FBI Director Kash Patel.
On Tuesday, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Patel demanding evidence in the investigation. At the same time, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee also sent letters to the FBI and DOJ, demanding files as they launched their own oversight investigation.
While the Trump administration is not expected to comply without a subpoena, it’s a preview of one of the multiple investigations by Democrats that could pick up steam should they return to the majority next fall.
“Do the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have video and audio recordings of White House ‘Border Czar’ Tom Homan accepting $50,000 in cash bribes from undercover FBI agents stuffed in a brown paper takeout bag from the restaurant chain Cava?” House Democrats wrote in the letter. “It certainly sounds like you do.”
The White House on Monday did not deny there was an investigation into Homan, but Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed he never accepted a bag of cash. She called the probe another example of government weaponization.
Homan was asked about allegedly accepting a bag of cash by Fox News on Monday night.
“I did nothing criminal. I did nothing illegal,” he said. “I’m glad the FBI and DOJ came out and said… that nothing illegal happened.”
But House Democrats are not taking the Trump administration’s word on it. They’ve demanded the FBI and Justice Department turn over all recordings of Homan’s meeting as well as files from the investigation into alleged bribery involving the top Trump official. They wrote that if the reporting is accurate, it’s evidence of multiple crimes.
“The former chief of public corruption in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C. describes Mr. Homan’s conduct is a strong case for conspiracy to commit bribery,” they wrote. “For the ‘agreement itself is the conspiracy crime,’ and would remain a crime even if the promisor ‘were never even appointed to anything at all.’”
They wrote that it was all scandal enough but noted “the apparent cover-up that happened next is utterly shocking.” The letter went on to describe the reported effort to swiftly kill the investigation once Trump retook office.
“Your explanation for your actions has been incomplete, unconvincing, and at times downright embarrassing,” they wrote.
They also pushed back on the accusations that just because the probe originated under the previous investigation it somehow made it improper despite being carried out by special agents and career prosecutors.
“Criminal investigations and prosecutions obviously go from one administration to the next all the time,” they noted. “In fact, under your leadership, DOJ and FBI have repeatedly taken credit for arrests, indictments, and convictions resulting from long-running investigations carried out under the previous Administration.”
House Democrats even brought up the Epstein files, writing that the claims of no credible evidence in the Homan case was the same line they used there.
They’ve directed the Justice Department and FBI to turn over all recordings, other documentation, files and communications regarding the investigation by September 29. Senate Democrats have requested all falls as well as responses to a series of questions by October 6.
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