Tom, I want to give you a chance to address this article that came out over the weekend, and it was on our always reliable MSNBC. And they said that, you took $50,000 in [00:00:15] cash in a bag from an undercover FBI agent to help them win government contracts in Trump's second term. Look, I did nothing criminal. I did nothing illegal. Well, there you have Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, denying that he engaged [00:00:33] in any type of corrupt act after a Washington Post exposé accused him of just that last night on Fox News. He defended himself from, some damning accusations that he took $50,000 from undercover federal agents. [00:00:49] So we'll hear more of what actually, we'll hear more of what actually wasn't really a denial in a moment. But before we do, you had an instant reaction to that was, I want to I want to know what you're thinking. It's just what you said. He didn't deny taking the 50,000. [00:01:04] He just said, oh, I didn't commit any crimes. Not not that I didn't accept 50,000 in a brown paper bag. He says, I haven't committed a single crime. Okay. So the reporting indicates that he took the $50,000 in a bag. [00:01:23] So I'm just trying to imagine, like, what preceded that moment, right? Like, the person who allegedly bribed him went to cava, had themselves a good hummus bowl, enjoyed it, and then saved the bag to put the cash in. And then, you know, engage in this, you know, alleged corruption. [00:01:40] Okay, so Tom Homan was recorded in September of 2020 for accepting a bag with $50,000 in cash in an undercover FBI investigation. The cash payment, which was made inside a bag, from the food chain cava, grew [00:01:56] out of a long running counterintelligence investigation that had not been targeting Homan, according to the people. So that's interesting. So just to make sure you caught that again, The interaction was apparently recorded on audio tape, so Hoffman's encounter with the undercover FBI agents led him to be investigated [00:02:16] for potential bribery and other crimes, after he apparently took the money and agreed to help the agents, who were posing as businessmen secure future government contracts related to border security, the people said. But after Trump took office this year, the Justice Department officials [00:02:32] shut that case down. And I think that's the bigger story here. It doesn't it's not that I don't think Hoffman should be held accountable, but the root of the problem at this moment is the fact that the Trump administration doesn't want corruption to be investigated. They shut this investigation down. [00:02:49] So they claim it was because of doubts about whether prosecutors could prove to a jury that Hoffman had agreed to do any specific act in exchange for the money, even though it was on camera. And also because he didn't hold an official government position at the time [00:03:04] of the meeting with undercover agents. I actually think that second point has some merit to it. If you're not already working for the government, it is going to be hard to prosecute you. Let's just keep it real, okay? So we got to be honest and fair. One person familiar with the case said the evidence gathered [00:03:21] had not met all the necessary elements of relevant federal crimes, while another contended that the case was effectively ended prematurely before such additional evidence could be gathered. So that's also a fair point. Now, FBI Director Kash Patel, who's just really good at his job, and deputy A.G. [00:03:38] Todd Blanche put out a statement on Saturday claiming that the incident was fully reviewed, fully reviewed, nothing to see here and that they found no credible evidence of any criminal wrongdoing. Okay, but obviously this does raise some questions about whether Trump's administration was just trying to shield one of their own from facing prosecution [00:03:58] over potential bribery. And in this interview with Laura Ingraham, Homan really didn't deny that he took the money. All he said, or all he claimed, is that he didn't break the law and that he couldn't possibly be a criminal because he himself is part of because he [00:04:17] himself is part of law enforcement. I'm sorry I can't keep a straight face when I repeat that ridiculous claim. Take a look. Look, I did nothing criminal. I did nothing illegal. And this hit piece after hit piece after hit piece. And I'm glad the FBI and DOJ came out and said, and, you know, said [00:04:34] that nothing illegal happened and nothing, you know, no criminal activity you're talking about a guy spent 34 years enforcing the law. I mean, I left a very successful business that I ran to come back and work for a government again. I'm back on a government paycheck. Not only did I sacrifice my home, my family sacrifices, [00:04:51] I make sacrifices every day. I got more death threats than anybody. I got a security team around me. But guess what? My kids don't. My wife don't. I mean, I haven't lived with my wife in months because I don't want her to be here right now with all the threats. So after all the sacrifices, after serving my nation for all these years, [00:05:07] they want to come out and dirty me up and it's not going to end. There's a hit piece on me every two weeks, but keep coming. Because you know what? Tom Homan isn't going anywhere. Tom Homan isn't shutting up, and Tom Homan is going to keep doing what he's doing because working with President Trump is the greatest honor of my life. We're making this country safer again every day, [00:05:22] and we're going to keep doing it. Look, the thing that Tom Homan has working in his favor is that, like when he gives these, like, rally speeches during these interviews, like, I know conservatives love it. It like really hypes them up. But like I have to say, whether it's Tom Homan or Donald Trump [00:05:41] talking about all of the sacrifices they made to be in the government, by all means, don't make any of those sacrifices. You don't have to be a government official like, you know, do you? Boo? But come on, really, it's. You haven't seen your wife in months because of threats. [00:06:00] Come on, come on. Okay. Anyway, anyway, so obviously this does raise some questions about whether Trump's administration was just trying to shield one of their own. We're going to get into a discussion about what's happened to, basically law enforcement that is tasked with investigating corruption in government. [00:06:18] Before we get to that, though, thoughts from you was. Just a couple of things. One, when he says that he's making a sacrifice and he's taking a pay cut, he's basically offering up a justification [00:06:35] as to why it might be possible that he's taking bribes. Like you're literally laying out the foundation for like, look, man, money's tighter now that I'm working for the government. A bribe would be like, it's all I'm hearing is like, yeah, this sounds like [00:06:54] reasons people would come up with telling themselves why they should take bribes. Another thing that people need to understand is that in the courts, they've basically made it so that it's really hard to prosecute somebody for corruption. [00:07:10] Yeah. Essentially, not only do you have to take the money, you have to follow through on the promise. So like if you just take the money and run and basically rip off the people that are trying to bribe you, that technically Anna doesn't count as corruption, [00:07:29] which I think is just laughable really. I think I disagree with you on that. Look, I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't take the money at all because I just have moral qualms about that. Sure. But but I do think you need to prove quid pro quo. You need to prove that, you know, you were corrupted and influenced by. [00:07:47] Well, what if they tried and just didn't get it done, like they just. Well, okay, so in that case, in that case, I mean, if, if, if the individual, if the government official tried to carry out the favor. Yeah, they should definitely face charges and be prosecuted for that. [00:08:04] So I agree with you on that. But if they like, took the money and did nothing at all, didn't even try. I don't I don't know if you can really prosecute over that. And the last thing because we did the story, I think it was me and John did a story where Ice is getting their car, [00:08:24] their brand new cars, like a new like paint job or whatever or getting them. - Oh thank. - God. I was really worried. That they ice logos like they wanted to look cooler. Oh my god. And they spend millions of dollars with a contractor on this. [00:08:40] Like that. Literally set a light bulb off for me where this insane ice budget like they come out and say, oh no, this is because we're super serious about kicking 15 million out. Realistically, it's just a kickback program. That's all it is. [00:08:56] All the detention centers, these cars, the all of the the sort of arm programing that comes with Ice, whether it be the cars and the customization or the detention centers. ET cetera, et cetera. All of that is just more grift. [00:09:12] A bunch of people who have connections to the Trump White House are going to be getting kickbacks. You're right about that. But I'm not too concerned because wise, you got to give the Doge staffers credit. I mean, they're cutting government waste, so I'm sure they're on it. [00:09:29] I'm sure they're on it. Yeah. And look, we're not going to have too much time to get into the finer details of this story, but I think it's worth mentioning that, it was just reported by Not Us that the Justice Department had 36 lawyers fighting corruption full time under Trump. [00:09:47] That has been whittled down to just two. The public integrity section is the latest casualty in the administration's attacks on Nixon era good government reforms. Yeah, tackling corruption, unsurprisingly, not a priority [00:10:03] for the Trump administration. You would think they'd want to, at least at the very least, six sic those 36 lawyers on Democrat corruption, at least. But I guess I guess not. Yeah, I guess not. And by the way, I don't care. - Democrat Republican corruption. - Absolutely. [00:10:20] But no, I mean get rid of all the lawyer as many of the lawyers as we can, because ain't nothing more corrupt than what we've been seeing in the Trump administration so far. 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