FBI Accused of Withholding Tapes of Tom Homan After Cash Probe ‘Absurdly’ Ended

​Tom Homan is facing mounting scrutiny. The Trump administration's “border czar”, who was brought in to pull federal agents out of Minnesota after Operation Metro Surge concluded, is now at the center of a lawsuit alleging the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) failed to pursue a potential bribery and fraud case involving him.

​Democracy Defenders Fund, a group co-founded by former Obama administration ethics adviser Norm Eisen, filed a lawsuit on February 17 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the FBI seeking disclosure of related records.

On September 21, 2025, Fox News host Laura Ingraham questioned Tom Homan about an MSNBC report that claimed he accepted $50,000 in cash from an undercover FBI agent.

​“Tom, I wanna give you a chance to address this article that came out over the weekend,” said Ingraham. “It was on our always reliable MSNBC, and they said that you took $50,000 in cash in a bag from an undercover FBI agent to help them win government contracts in Trump’s second term.”

​She added, “The Department of Justice (DOJ) said they concluded there was no criminal wrongdoing, but that story is out there, and I imagine you want to respond to that.”

​Homan claimed he did nothing “criminal” or “illegal”. “It’s hit piece after hit piece after hit piece, and I’m glad the FBI and DOJ came out and said, you know, said that nothing illegal happened, no criminal activity,” Homan said.

​Homan, who allegedly accepted $50,000 from an agent in exchange for helping secure government contracts in Trump's second administration, was investigated until DOJ closed the case.

“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 the government again. I’m back on a government paycheck. Not only did I sacrifice, but my family sacrificed. I make sacrifices every day. I got more death threats than anybody,” Homan told Ingraham in the interview.

​“Tom Homan’s gonna keep doing what he’s doing because working with President Trump is the greatest honor of my life. We’re making this country safer again every day, and we’re gonna keep doing it,” Homan said.

​When Homan was later questioned by NBC News’ Kristen Welker, he denied taking the bribe.

“The FBI recorded you accepting a bag,” Welker said. “I didn't take $50,000 from anybody. I’m not going to give this story any more air. Bottom line: I did nothing illegal.”

Homan said it is up to the FBI to decide whether the information from the incident would be made public, according to Law and Crime.

The Democracy Defenders Fund said in the lawsuit that the FBI “unlawfully withheld” video footage and other records citing the “privacy interest of the individuals”.

“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.

​Democracy Defenders Fund Chief Counsel Virginia Canter said the Trump administration must release the records.

​“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.”

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