President Donald Trump's so-called "border czar," Tom Homan, was ensnared in a $50,000 bribery sting last year that the incoming administration ultimately ignored.
According to MSNBC reporters Carol Leonnig and Ken Dilanian, Homan, whose official title is executive associate director for Enforcement and Removal Operations, was arrested as a result of another investigation into a private prison contracts scheme involving Homan's former ICE colleague Julian “Jace” Calderas.
"And in May 2023, he proposed a scheme, according to the FBI, whereby for $1 million, Homan could get them contracts and continued proposing that to the point that the FBI concluded they had to begin investigating Tom Homan for potential bribery," said Leonnig on MSNBC Monday.
Homan assumed he would become the Secretary of Homeland Security ahead of the election, said NBC News reporter Jacob Soboroff.
He was recorded accepting $50,000 in cash from undercover FBI agents posing as businessmen seeking government contracts. They had promised Homan $1 million. The recorded meeting involved Homan appearing to agree to help the undercover agents secure lucrative immigration-related contracts if Trump won a second term. The cash was delivered in a bag from the restaurant chain Cava.
"At that same meeting, the document shows, Calderas accepted $10,000 from the undercover FBI agents," the report said. "His alleged proposal to undercover FBI agents, which had not been previously reported, led to a full-blown Justice Department investigation of Homan, who at the time was a private consultant helping clients obtain government contracts."
It then set off a federal investigation into potential bribery, wire fraud, and conspiracy.
The investigation began under the Joe Biden administration and gained momentum as the election neared. However, after Trump took office in 2025, the Justice Department, led by officials closely aligned with Trump, decided to terminate the probe. They cited insufficient evidence to prove that Homan had committed a crime or provided favors in exchange for the funds, as he was not yet in an official government role at the time of the meeting. The outcome frustrated some law enforcement officials who believed more evidence could have been gathered.
The Trump White House, the FBI, and the DOJ claimed that the sting was politically motivated. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt went further, calling it out right entrapment.
Leonnig noted that at no point has Homan denied receiving the bribe. The White House, however, has denied that he took the bribe in a press statement.
Dilanian pointed to a clip of Leavitt from the press briefing last week in which she said, "The FBI agents knew very well that Tom Homan would be taking a job in the Trump administration."
"That's not true," Dilanian said. "This happened in September 2024, according to our reporting. So they had no idea who was going to win the election at that time. They were just following the investigation where it took them."
