The Department of Justice shut down an investigation involving President Donald Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, in which he had been recorded allegedly accepting cash from FBI agents posing as business executives, multiple sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The sting operation, which stemmed from a broader public corruption probe that did not initially target Homan, led agents to an encounter in which they recorded Homan allegedly accepting a bag containing $50,000 in cash while agreeing to potentially help the men obtain government contracts in the event Trump won the 2024 election, the sources said.
The investigation, started during the Biden administration, was handed over to the Trump administration. Officials briefed Justice Department leadership about it in the early days of Trump’s presidency as part of their ongoing efforts to vet personnel who had been appointed to senior leadership posts in his administration, the sources said.
Investigators at the time were still working to determine whether Homan would have followed through on arranging the government contracts, as some in the Justice Department questioned the legal viability of charges in a scenario where Homan had proposed the government contract when Trump’s election victory wasn’t yet guaranteed, according to the sources.