Break It Down!
The Trump administration has been accused of many things, ranging from incompetent to corrupt. It’s array of former Fox News alumni underscore the questionable competence. The most recent example of alleged corruption stems from an episode involving Tom Homan, Trump’s so-called Border Czar.
Today, the White House finds itself standing behind Homan following reports he accepted $50,000 US from undercover agents posing as businesspeople during an FBI sting operation last year.
Consistent with the Trump playbook, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt characterized Homan’s encounter with the undercover agents as an effort by the Biden’s administration to “entrap one of the president’s top allies and supporters; someone who they knew very well would be taking a government position.” It’s interesting how insightful the administration Team Trump consistently calls inept, can be sharp and insightful…when it serves their purpose. Biden, nor anyone else “knew very well” Homan would be in Trump’s administration. Apparently, what they did know, was that Homan was likely a bad actor.
Leavitt went on to say, “The White House and the president stand by Tom Homan 100 per cent because he did absolutely nothing wrong, and he is a brave public servant who has done a phenomenal job in helping the president shut down the border.” It’s worth noting what Homan appears not to have said. There are no reports of him saying he did not take the cash.
MSNBC first reported Saturday that Homan had accepted the cash in a Sept. 20, 2024, encounter with undercover agents who were posing as businesspeople seeking government contracts that Homan suggested he could help them get in a second Trump term.
What you the citizen need to know: The Trump administration Justice Department shut down the probe, and said the matter was “subjected to a full review,” but authorities found “no credible evidence of any criminal wrongdoing.”
The administration clearly has other priorities, as the statement by FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said: “The Department’s resources must remain focused on real threats to the American people, not baseless investigations. “As a result, the investigation has been closed.”
Leavitt insisted to reporters during a briefing on Monday that Homan “never took the $50,000 you’re referring to,” though she did not elaborate on what she meant. An MSNBC spokesperson said the network stood by its reporting.
On Sunday, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that Homan accepted the cash.
Homan’s response: “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 added that he and his family have been subjected to death threats.
While providing no evidence, the White House criticized the Biden administration investigation as politically motivated. However, the FBI director during Biden’s term was Christopher Wray, a registered Republican, and the Justice Department investigated Democrats for corruption, including veteran Sen. Bob Menendez, who is now in prison.
Democrats from the House’s judiciary committee in a letter on Tuesday called upon Patel to release “explosive recordings” and other documents from the aborted investigation. The letter stated:
“Confirmed by six sources and reportedly captured on recordings now in [Department of Justice] and FBI’s possession, this startling episode is powerful evidence that Mr. Homan may have committed multiple federal felonies, including conspiracy to commit bribery.”
Between his stints in both Trump administrations, Homan was a consultant for GEO Group, which invests in private prisons and has been awarded several new contracts this year from the federal government.
The Democrats asserted, “The corruption investigation the Trump Administration blocked would have examined whether Mr. Homan was selling these contracts for personal profit before he even had the power to award them.”
The MSNBC report has elevated a fresh array of concerns about political interference in Justice Department matters at a time when Trump’s calls for prosecutions of his adversaries is testing the law enforcement agency’s long tradition of independence when it comes to prosecutorial decision-making.
Trump supercharged his pressure campaign on the Justice Department over the weekend, publicly calling for Attorney General Pam Bondi to move forward with cases against New York Attorney General Letitia James, former FBI director James Comey and U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff. In a separate incident, Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton had his residence and office searched this summer, though the specifics of that probe have not been officially announced.
Raising concern about the matter, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy said on ABC News, “See what happened to Tom Homan, his border czar, who literally accepted a bag of cash — $50,000 — and the investigation was dropped once Trump became president. There are just two standards of justice now in this country. If you are a friend of the president, a loyalist of the president, you can get away with nearly anything … but if you are an opponent of the president, you may find yourself in jail.”
Maybe; you make the call. ”Tom Homan: “I Did Nothing Criminal!”
I’m done; holla back!
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For more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post, consult the link below:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-homan-bribery-allegation-1.7640932
BREAK IT DOWN! 