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Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 189

Navigating the Nonsense

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Trial Balloon · Ep. 189: Navigating the Nonsense

Border Czar Didn’t Get Normal Background Check

December 30, 2025 · 8:44 am ET · Leave a Comment

“In early January, several days before Donald Trump’s inauguration, a Justice Department lawyer passed an envelope across a wide desk to a top Trump transition official. Enclosed was a bombshell, typed up in a one-page summary,” MS NOW reports.

“As he read the contents of the envelope, the official, Emil Bove, closed his eyes and grimaced… It revealed that Tom Homan — at that time, a frequent companion of Trump’s on the campaign trail who had publicly boasted he would be joining Trump’s administration to lead his immigrant deportation strategy — was the subject of an ongoing bribery investigation. Undercover FBI agents posing as private contractors had recorded him accepting $50,000 in cash in exchange for what they believed was Homan’s vow to help get border enforcement contracts in the new Trump administration.”

“A small group of career lawyers at the Justice Department felt an urgency to share this sensitive information with the president-elect’s team as soon as possible, hoping to head off potential embarrassment and a security clearance problem before Trump picked his future Cabinet and top appointees.”

Immigration

Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.

More about Taegan Goddard →
« A Quiet Supreme Court Ruling Clips Trump’s Power
How Trump Plans to Close ‘Huge Loophole’ in Immigration »

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