DOJ Told Trump Transition Team That Tom Homan Was Being Investigated for Bribery

(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

The Trump transition team was informed about the DOJ’s bribery investigation into Tom Homan, the former acting director of ICE whom Donald Trump tapped as his border czar shortly after he prevailed in the 2024 presidential election, a few days before Trump took the oath of office in January.

MS NOW’s Carol Leonnig and Ken Dilanian broke the news on Tuesday:

In early January, several days before Donald Trump’s inauguration, a Justice Department lawyer passed an envelope across a wide desk to a top Trump transition official. Enclosed was a bombshell, typed up in a one-page summary, according to two people briefed on the meeting.

As he read the contents of the envelope, the official, Emil Bove, closed his eyes and grimaced, according to the people, who requested anonymity to discuss a sensitive case. It revealed that Tom Homan — at that time, a frequent companion of Trump’s on the campaign trail who had publicly boasted he would be joining Trump’s administration to lead his immigrant deportation strategy — was the subject of an ongoing bribery investigation. Undercover FBI agents posing as private contractors had recorded him accepting $50,000 in cash in exchange for what they believed was Homan’s vow to help get border enforcement contracts in the new Trump administration.

Homan had not been subject to the traditional FBI background check before Trump announced him as border czar. In spite of the investigation into him, Homan nevertheless still obtained a security clearance and assumed the position Trump tapped him for upon his inauguration.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson accused the reporters of attempting to “resurrect a story that has already been thoroughly debunked,” when asked for comment.

“This was a blatantly political investigation, that found no evidence of illegal activity, and was 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,” said Jackson in a statement. “Tom Homan is a career law enforcement officer and lifelong public servant who is doing a phenomenal job on behalf of President Trump and the country.”

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