Trump DOJ sued over alleged Tom Homan bribe recording

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Salon

Published October 7, 2025 9:04AM (EDT)


A new lawsuit alleges that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice failed to comply with an expedited Freedom of Information Act request involving a “key recording” in a reported bribery scandal involving White House border czar Tom Homan.

The scandal, first reported by MSNBC, alleges that Homan accepted the cash bribe from agents posing as business executives in exchange for government contracts in a second Trump administration. MSNBC reported that the exchange had been captured on video, while The New York Times reported that it had been “recorded on audiotape.”

Democracy Forward, a D.C.-based policy research and legal services organization, filed the lawsuit on Monday morning with the D.C. District Court. It had filed a FOIA request for any alleged recording of the incident on Sept. 22 and requested expedited processing on the 25th, which was denied.

The organization says the legal challenge aims to “compel compliance” from the FBI and DOJ to release the purported recording of Homan accepting $50,000 from undercover FBI agents in Sept. 2024.

Read more: https://www.salon.com/2025/10/07/trump-doj-sued-over-alleged-tom-homan-bribe-recording/

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Link to Democracy Forward PRESS RELEASE - Democracy Forward Sues Trump-Vance Administration for Withholding Recording of Border Czar Homan Accepting Cash From Undercover Agents

Link to SUIT (PDF) - https://democracyforward.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Compl-Homan-recording.pdf

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. There is a recording and it will come out at some point

Link to tweet

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. MaddowBlog-Pressed on Tom Homan controversy, JD Vance and Pam Bondi struggle to answer

The attorney general and the vice president confronted straightforward questions about the scandal surrounding the border czar. Both Republicans struggled.

The White House has had nearly a month to come up with some talking points on Tom Homan’s cash-in-a-Cava-bag scandal.

The latest comments from JD Vance and Pam Bondi suggested that Team Trump still hasn’t come up with much of a defense. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-10-13T18:12:17.543Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/tom-homan-cash-jd-vance-pam-bondi-struggle-answer-rcna237316

It’s been nearly a month since the public first learned about the bribery controversy surrounding White House border czar Tom Homan, which means administration officials have had plenty of time to come up with answers to obvious questions and talking points related to the burgeoning scandal. They don’t appear to have come up with much......

On Sunday, another prominent member of Team Trump struggled just as much. Politico reported:

Vice President JD Vance sparred Sunday with George Stephanopoulos in a discussion when the ABC host asked about White House border czar Tom Homan. The segment on ‘This Week’ ended with Stephanopoulos saying ‘You did not answer the question’ even as Vance tried one final time to rebut him.

....The matter was under investigation, right up until Trump returned to the White House, at which point the probe stalled. Last month, the case was closed altogether......

With this in mind, Stephanopoulos asked the vice president a reasonable question: Did Homan keep the money, or did he give it back?

STEPHANOPOULOS: I didn't insinuate anything. I asked you whether Tom Homan accepted k as was heard on an audio tape recorded by the FBI in September 2024. You did not answer the question. Thank you for your time.

VANCE: No, George, I sai--

STEPHANOPOULOS: We'll be right back

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-10-12T15:33:17.280Z

......The attorney general and the vice president have refused to answer that question, which only makes the broader controversy that much more provocative.

For what it’s worth, the Trump administration could simply release the FBI recording of the undercover agents’ interaction with Homan, which would presumably help clear things up, but the folks who claim to be the “most transparent” officials in the history of the planet have so far kept the tapes under wraps.

As regular readers know, “Release the Epstein files” has been a common mantra for quite a while. “Release the Homan tapes” is just getting started. Watch this space.