FILE – White House border czar Tom Homan holds a news conference at the Bishop Whipple Federal building on Wednesday, February. 4, 2026 in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy, File)
The Trump administration “border czar” called in to draw down “Operation Metro Surge” in Minnesota after the CBP shooting of Alex Pretti has survived multiple presidencies and also a DOJ probe. Now a group is suing the FBI for answers, through video footage and more, on how a potential bribery and fraud case against Tom Homan went nowhere.
Democracy Defenders Fund, a group co-founded by former Obama administration “ethics czar” Norm Eisen, filed suit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the FBI, seeking to bring those details to light.
Questions began publicly swirling about Homan in September, when MS Now reported that Homan one year prior was recorded by the FBI accepting a $50,000 bag of cash from agents, who were pretending to be executives looking for a leg up landing contracts as then candidate-Donald Trump pursued office a second time.
While the probe was opened in the latter months of the Biden administration, Kash Patel”s FBI and Attorney General Pam Bondi’s DOJ took the reins and said “no credible evidence of any criminal wrongdoing” was uncovered. The case was closed.
At the time news of the investigation came out, Homan appeared on Fox News to react to the controversy. In response, he said he didn’t do anything criminal but did not answer a question about whether he accepted the alleged $50,000 sum.
“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,” he said. “My family sacrifices. I make sacrifices every day. I got more death threats than anybody.”
Homan was pressed again on the subject in January, this time by NBC News’ Kristen Welker.
“The FBI recorded you accepting a bag,” Welker began describing the allegations, also referencing the Trump DOJ’s rationale for shuttering the investigation.
“I didn’t take $50,000 from anybody,” Homan said. “I’m not going to give this story any more air. Bottom line: I did nothing illegal.”
Welker then directly asked if Homan accepted or returned the money.
“I didn’t have any money to return. I didn’t take the $50,000. Bottom line,” he said, bristling over attacks on his “integrity” and professionalism.
Asked about the reported recording of the bag incident and whether the videos and other information should come out, Homan said that’s up to the FBI.
On that front, Democracy Defenders Fund agrees, claiming violations of the Freedom of Information Act and “unlawful withholding of agency records.” The FBI, the lawsuit claims, has “unlawfully withheld” video footage and investigation records responsive to FOIA requests.
“These documents contain vital information that the American public needs to have in order to assess both Mr. Homan’s potentially corrupt actions as well as the Department of Justice and FBI’s potentially politically motivated decision to drop the investigation into Mr. Homan, one of the Trump Administration’s appointees,” the filing said, ripping the DOJ for “absurdly” ending the probe even though “several law enforcement officials believed that they had a strong case against Mr. Homan based on the recordings.”
Notably, the plaintiff claims the FBI declined to release the documents by citing the “privacy interest of individuals mentioned within the documents.”
Democracy Defenders Fund Chief Counsel Virginia Canter said in a statement that the public has an interest in learning about multiple layers of possible “corruption.”
“Tom Homan is alleged to have taken tens of thousands of dollars to peddle government contracts. If true, that is textbook corruption. If Trump appointees shut down the investigation, that raises even more serious questions,” Canter said. “The administration must come clean and provide the tapes and files. If they do not, we hope a judge will force them to because the American people deserve the truth.”
