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House Democrats have launched a series of investigations into Tom Homan, President Trump’s border czar, amid allegations that he accepted $50,000 in cash from undercover FBI agents as part of an influence-peddling probe.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, is pressing the Justice Department to turn over a reported tape showing Homan accepting the money last year as part of an FBI sting. Meanwhile, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee, wants the panel’s Republicans to demand Homan’s testimony — by subpoena if necessary.
Republicans have shown little appetite for scrutinizing Trump, however, and Democrats aren’t holding their breath for Trump’s allies to help with any formal probe into the allegations against Homan. Instead, they’re initiating their own investigations into reports that Trump’s border czar accepted a bag of cash from federal agents probing pay-to-play schemes for government contracts.
“Republicans haven’t been functioning as a separate and co-equal branch of government,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said this week in announcing the Democrats’ investigations. “They are simply a reckless and extreme rubber stamp for Donald Trump’s out of control agenda, and we are not going to wait until we take the majority back in November of next year.”
As the minority party, Democrats face an uphill climb in their effort to investigate Homan’s alleged misconduct. Without gavels, they can’t stage formal committee hearings, for instance, and they don’t have the authority to issue subpoenas to compel witness testimony — a power reserved for the majority.
Still, the Democrats’ partisan probes will likely keep the Homan allegations in the headlines for weeks to come, helping the party drive home one of its central messaging themes heading into next year’s midterm elections: namely, that Trump’s second term is rife with corruption and abuse, and GOP leaders in the Capitol have done nothing to rein it in.
Democrats don’t just want the Homan tapes but also insight into an investigation that was shut down once Trump officials landed in office.
Adding to the scrutiny are the responses from the White House and Homan.
The White House did not initially deny that Homan took the money, instead saying it was a “blatantly political investigation, which found no evidence of illegal activity” and noting he does not have a role in federal contracting decisions.
But on Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt denied that he accepted the payment, saying, “Mr. Homan never took the $50,000 that you’re referring to, so you should get your facts straight, number one.”
Later, in a Monday night appearance on Fox News’s “Ingraham Angle,” Homan denied wrongdoing but did not repeat Leavitt’s claim when asked about the money.
“Look, I did nothing criminal. I did nothing illegal,” Homan said.
Such a transaction would likely be illegal. Public officials can face federal bribery charges for any such arrangements. Even those outside of government are barred from improperly influencing federal contracting, regardless of whether someone is able to deliver on a promise to do so.
GOP leaders, who control both chambers of Congress, have signaled no plans to examine the allegations. The Hill contacted the offices of House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Homeland Security Chair Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.). None responded.
Democrats are much more skeptical.
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), alongside other members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, have asked both the FBI and the Justice Department to explain their roles in closing down an investigation, begun under former President Biden, that was ongoing at the time of the presidential transition.
“Top administration officials, including [FBI Director Kash Patel] and then-Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, were reportedly briefed on the evidence before moving to close the investigation. It is difficult to believe that an investigation with evidence of Mr. Homan accepting $50,000 cash in a bag — documented by audio and/or video recording — could have been found to lack ‘credible evidence of any criminal wrongdoing,’ as you and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche recently stated,” the Democratic senators wrote Tuesday to Patel.
“Closing this investigation is an unprecedented departure from the FBI’s longstanding role in combatting public corruption.”
Raskin, from his perch on the House Judiciary panel, will also take a lead in probing the Justice Department’s handling of the case. And on the House Homeland Security panel, Thompson is planning to launch a separate investigation into Homan, whose role in heading Trump’s immigration crackdown places him under its jurisdiction.
For the House Homeland Security Committee, scrutiny of Homan would include review of the $170 billion in border security and immigration enforcement funding that was included in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The legislation included historic levels of funding to detain migrants ahead of their possible deportation — a costly undertaking not used by past administrations, given the expense and logistical challenge of holding such a large number of people.
Doing so has required a great deal of outsourcing to private companies — something Raskin said Homan may have been able to influence.
“Many of these payments have gone to private contractors, including Mr. Homan’s former client GEO Group. In fact, GEO Group, a private detention facility operator, has received multiple new contracts to expand U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention capacity since January—worth over a billion dollars,” he wrote in the letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Patel.
