President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan has changed his story about taking a $50,000 payment from an undercover FBI agent during a sting operation.
Homan has maintained since the report broke last month that he did “nothing illegal,” but when pressed about the incident during a Fox News interview, he previously didn’t deny accepting the cash.
Now, however, he’s claiming otherwise.
“I didn’t take $50,000 from anybody,” Homan told conservative pundit Bill O’Reilly on Wednesday during a NewsNation town hall at the Kennedy Center.
Asked then how the story “got into the mainstream,” Homan said he had “no idea.”
“There’s been hit pieces on me since I came back to this administration,” he said. “In fact, day one, I came back, I recused myself from any discussions of any contract or any monetary decisions like that because I used to have a company that did consulting.”
“I’m not enriching myself doing this job,” he added, saying once again that he had taken a “significant” pay cut to join the administration.
Last month, MSNBC reporting by Carol Leonnig and Ken Dilanian described Homan taking the cash in the lead-up to the 2024 election in exchange for “facilitating” immigration contracts in a future Trump administration.
Internal FBI documents explicitly said Homan had taken the money during the sting operation, which was recorded on tape. Sources told MSNBC that the FBI and DOJ were waiting to move forward with the investigation until Homan took over as border czar and could make good on his promise.
After Trump took office, though, FBI Director Kash Patel requested an update on the case, which was then closed by an unnamed Trump appointee.
“We reviewed internal document saying Homan accepted the cash payment from undercover @FBI agents in September 2024,” Leonnig posted on X.
When asked during a White House press briefing if Homan would need to return the money last month, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “Well, Mr. Homan never took the $50,000 that you’re referring to, so you should get your facts straight.”
Homan himself, however, had not denied taking the money when given an opportunity to address the controversy during a September interview with Fox News.
“I did nothing criminal, I did nothing illegal, and there’s hit piece after hit piece after hit piece,” Homan told Laura Ingraham. “And I’m glad the FBI and DOJ came out and said that nothing illegal happened and no criminal activity.”
Leavitt told reporters last month that the White House and the president stood by Homan “100 percent.”
“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,” she added.
In a statement to the Daily Beast, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said the FBI investigation was “blatantly political” and that Homan had not been involved in any contract decisions.
The alleged payment was the subject of a contentious interview last week between ABC News host George Stephanopoulos and Vice President JD Vance.
“I think the American people would benefit much more from [talking about the shutdown] than from you going down some weird left-wing rabbit hole where the facts clearly show that Tom Homan didn’t engage in any criminal wrongdoing,” Vance told Stephanopoulos on This Week.
“It’s not a weird left-wing rabbit hole,” Stephanopoulos replied. “I didn’t insinuate anything, I asked you whether Tom Homan accepted $50,000 as was heard on an audio tape recorded by the FBI in September 2024, and you did not answer the question. Thank you for your time this morning.”
“No, George, I said…” Vance attempted to counter, before Stephanopoulos cut him off and told his viewers, “We’ll be right back.”
