White House backs 'border czar' after reports he accepted cash during
undercover FBI probe last year
[September 23, 2025]
By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and ERIC TUCKER
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House stood behind “border czar” Tom Homan
on Monday following reports that he had accepted $50,000 from undercover
agents posing as businesspeople during an undercover FBI operation last
year, leading to a bribery investigation that was shut down by the Trump
administration Justice Department.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt characterized Homan's encounter with
the undercover agents as an effort by the Biden administration to
“entrap one of the president’s top allies and supporters, someone who
they knew very well would be taking a government position.”
“The White House and the president stand by Tom Homan 100% because he
did absolutely nothing wrong, and he is a brave public servant who has
done a phenomenal job in helping the president shut down the border,”
she said.
MSNBC first reported Saturday that Homan had accepted the cash during a
2024 encounter with undercover agents who were posing as businesspeople
seeking government contracts that Homan suggested he could help them get
in a second Trump term. Two people familiar with the investigation, who
were not authorized to discuss a sensitive law enforcement inquiry by
name, confirmed the existence of the investigation to The Associated
Press on Monday as well as details from it.
The Trump administration Justice Department, which shut down the probe,
said the matter was “subjected to a full review,” but authorities found
“no credible evidence of any criminal wrongdoing.” Without providing
evidence, the White House criticized the Biden administration
investigation as politically motivated.
“The Department’s resources must remain focused on real threats to the
American people, not baseless investigations,” FBI Director Kash Patel
and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. “As a
result, the investigation has been closed.”
Leavitt insisted to reporters during a briefing Monday that Homan “never
took the $50,000 you're referring to,” though she did not elaborate what
she meant. An MSNBC spokesperson said the network stood by its
reporting.
In a subsequent interview on Fox News Channel's “The Ingraham Angle,”
Homan said: “I did nothing criminal. I did nothing illegal.”
“You’re talking about a guy who spent 34 years enforcing the law. I
mean, I left a very successful business that I ran to come back and work
for government again,” Homan said, adding: “My family sacrifices. I make
sacrifices every day. I got more death threats than anybody.”
Homan also said, “I haven’t lived with my wife in months because I don’t
want her to be here right now with all the threats.”
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The revelation about Homan has nonetheless sparked fresh concerns
about political interference in Justice Department matters at a time
when Trump's calls for prosecutions of his adversaries is testing
the law enforcement agency's long tradition of independence when it
comes to prosecutorial decision-making. Trump escalated his pressure
campaign on the Justice Department over the weekend, publicly
calling for Attorney General Pam Bondi to move forward with cases
against New York Attorney General Letitia James, former FBI Director
James Comey and U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff.
“See what happened to Tom Homan, his border czar, who literally
accepted a bag of cash — $50,000 — and the investigation was dropped
once Trump became president,” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy said on
ABC News. "There are just two standards of justice now in this
country. If you are a friend of the president, a loyalist of the
president you can get away with nearly anything ... but if you are
an opponent of the president, you may find yourself in jail."
Homan came under Justice Department scrutiny after a target of a
separate investigation suggested Homan was soliciting bribes, one of
the people who confirmed details of the investigation told the AP.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said Homan “has not been
involved with any contract award decisions."
“This blatantly political investigation, which found no evidence of
illegal activity, 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 said in a
statement.
Homan has been a key figure behind Trump's hardline immigration
policies and deportation efforts, serving as acting director of
Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the first Trump
administration. Shortly after Trump's presidential victory in
November, he announced that Homan would serve as “border czar” in
the incoming administration.
_____
Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to
this report.
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