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.
“Numerous members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate have asked for the production of the recording of Mr. Homan’s acceptance of this cash payment,” the lawsuit notes, “and further investigation of the ethical concerns raised by and the Administration’s closure of the consequent investigation.”
FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a statement on Sept. 22 saying the case “was subjected to a full review by F.B.I. agents and Justice Department prosecutors.”
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“They found no credible evidence of any criminal wrongdoing,” the statement said.
Skye Perryman, the president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said the government’s actions would “erode public trust.”
“These law enforcement agencies must follow the law and release this critical recording without delay,” Perryman said in a statement. “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.”
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