Dem
47
GOP
53
Border "czar" Tom Homan likes to come off as a tough-guy cop. Turns out tough-guy crook might be a better description. In Sept. 2024, he was recorded accepting a $50,000 cash bribe for agreeing to help the payer get a border enforcement contract if Donald Trump won and he was in a position to help. The only problem it that was a sting operation and the guy offering the bag of cash was an undercover FBI agent. Oops. Since Homan's acceptance of the money was recorded, it is a slam-dunk case, no?
Sure, but not for this DoJ. It just dropped the bribery case started at the end of the Biden administration. What's a little bribery between friends, after all? If you can't get a part of the action, what's the point of being in this administration? Being cruel to immigrants is fun, but it doesn't pay the mortgage.
A bribery charge was slightly tricky because at the time Homan took the bag, it wasn't certain that Trump would win. Still, an agreement to try to give someone a fat contract in the future if that was within his power in return for cash now is still something that would probably convince a jury, even if Homan couldn't guarantee the contract last year.
What the DoJ could have done is take a good look to see if Homan indeed tried to make good on his promise. But instead the case has now been dropped. And not only is Homan not going to be prosecuted, the unit that was going after him, the Public Integrity Section, which goes after corrupt officials, has been reduced this year from 30 prosecutors to five. Presumably Donald Trump thinks that there will be no corruption in his administration, so there is no need for gumshoes to ferret it out. Unless there is some other explanation, but we can't imagine what it would be. (V)