The White House is standing behind border czar Tom Homan after reports that he accepted $50,000 as part of an undercover FBI sting operation last year.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a briefing Monday that Homan didn’t take the money at all — despite several reports suggesting that the exchange took place on camera.
“Mr. Homan never took the $50,000 that you’re referring to,” Leavitt said. “So you should get your facts straight.”
According to reporting from MSNBC, Homan accepted $50,000 in 2024 from FBI agents posing as business executives after indicating that he could help them secure government contracts in the second Trump administration.
The FBI and DOJ intended to continue the investigation to see if Homan would fulfill the promises he made to the fake executives, only for the investigation to be closed by the Trump administration, according to MSNBC.
The reporting, which has been confirmed by other outlets, also states that the exchange of $50,000 in cash was recorded on camera by FBI officials.
“Mr. Homan did absolutely nothing wrong, and even the president’s Department of Justice, even Kash Patel’s FBI, looked into this just to make sure. They had a number of different prosecutors and FBI agents who looked into this,” Leavitt continued. “They found zero evidence of illegal activity or criminal wrongdoing in the White House, and the president stands by Tom Homan 100% because he did absolutely nothing wrong.”
Homan himself has also denied the claims.
The allegations come at a time when the White House is under scrutiny from critics who say it is weaponizing the Department of Justice against Trump’s political enemies. On Saturday, Trump posted a message to Truth Social urging Attorney General Pam Bondi to advance legal action against his foes.
Leavitt said that the FBI’s investigation into Homan, which happened while Trump was still on the campaign trail, is “another example of the weaponization” of the Department of Justice under former President Joe Biden.
Democrats are already demanding answers as to why the investigation was closed.
“Border Czar Tom Homan was caught by the FBI accepting bribes – on camera – to deliver government contracts in exchange for $50,000 in cash,” Sen. Adam Schiff, himself the subject of a Trump DOJ investigation, wrote on X Saturday. “Pam Bondi knew. Kash Patel knew. Emil Bove knew. And they made the investigation go away.”