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Get that bag
The Trump admin. won't release an alleged recording of its deportation czar accepting $50,000.
Charles Davis
October 07, 2025
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Respect the hustle
It is almost unbearable, watching Trump deportation czar Tom Homan try to form words. Whether it’s on MSNBC, branding Democrats as allies of narco-Antifa-terror immigrants, to appearances on Fox News, branding Democrats as allies of narco-Antifa-terror immigrants — the man sticks to the script — the 63-year-old exudes the hubris of a man who does not know his limits, intellectually.
So when the news came out that Homan was allegedly caught last year accepting $50,000 in a bag from a fast-casual Mediterranean chain, reportedly in exchange for “securing contracts” for the generous donor once Donald Trump gave him a job in his second administration, I thought: Of course he would (allegedly and reportedly) be so brazen, and think himself so lucky.
And he was lucky. Trump went on to win the election; he went on to appoint Homan; and his Department of Justice went on to drop the investigation that had (allegedly and reportedly) caught the nation’s top border official. There are other allegations of impropriety — ProPublica reported that a half-dozen companies hired Homan’s former business partner in the hopes of grabbing lucrative federal contracts — but the deportation czar will likely continue making cable news appearances so long as his chief benefactor is in the White House.
But as many a Trump official has lamented: Washington is a leaky place. There is (again: allegedly/reportedly) video of Homan accepting that $50,000 in cash. The New York Times reported that there is audio, too. And if those recordings don’t come out one way, there are people fighting for it to be released in another.
In a lawsuit filed Monday, the nonprofit Democracy Forward demanded Trump’s DOJ hand over any recording that captures the alleged (and reported) Homan-CAVA transaction). The legal action comes after the administration failed to comply with an expedited request for the material under the Freedom of Information Act.
“The public deserves answers about why this investigation was closed and whether senior Trump officials are being shielded from scrutiny that would apply to anyone else,” Democracy Forward President Skye Perryman said in a statement.
Homan and the White House deny that any such recording exists. Then again, this same White House denied that the president ever sent a birthday card to Jeffrey Epstein, and then the Wall Street Journal produced a birthday card signed by a “Donald J. Trump.” The administration’s flacks denied that too, but the trust just isn’t there, you know? Guess we’ll see about the money.
What do you think Tom Homan might have done with $50,000? What would you do? Sound off in the comments.
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