In short
Allegations that DOJ/Trump officials tried to cover up or enable a bribery scheme involving Tom Holman, and that incoming Trump transition teams delayed FBI background checks; also claims about Emil Bovee’s potential impeachment/removal tied to obstruction and related DOJ actions.
Guest backgrounds
No guests are interviewed. Host Michael Popok (Midas Touch Network / Legal AF) discusses reporting by Tom Holman and others, including references to MSNOW and Senator Schiff’s oversight questioning.
Key claims
An undercover FBI sting in Texas allegedly offered Holman a $50,000 cash bribe (delivered via a yellow “Cava” takeout bag) to steer federal contracts; transition officials allegedly avoided required FBI background checks, using private investigators instead; an internal DOJ memo reportedly warned Emil Bovee about Holman’s sting, and Bovee allegedly “grimaced/rolled his eyes.” Bovee is also linked to a separate DOJ use of the Alien Enemies Act and a contempt proceeding.
Notable examples
Julian Calderas allegedly told FBI that paying Holman would secure contracts; Pam Bondi’s Senate hearing is cited about whether she would release video/audio of the alleged bribe; Schiff questions Bondi about the $50,000 denial.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOIntroduction to Emil Bovee's Controversy
0:19 to 0:48
Discussion on the impeachment potential for Judge Emil Bovee.
“And based on some new reporting involving Tom Holman and his bribery scandal that just broke on MSNOW, I think Emil Bovey better watch himself.”
Background on the Bribery Scandal
0:48 to 1:00
Overview of the bribery scandal involving Tom Homan and the FBI sting operation.
“You're on Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF.”
Details of the Bribery Attempt
1:00 to 2:18
Insight into the details of an undercover FBI sting operation against Tom Homan.
“That was at the very end of the Biden administration, just a couple of months before the election.”
Implications for Emil Bovee's Future
2:18 to 4:19
Analysis of the potential implications of Emil Bovee's involvement in the bribery scandal.
“But he Grimace rolled his eyes because in the one page internal memo, it said that Tom Homan, who Donald Trump wanted to be a border czar, was caught in a sting operation on a$50 ,000 bribe.”
Legal Consequences for Bovee
4:19 to 4:51
Discussion on the legal consequences Bovee may face due to his actions.
Denial of the Bribery Allegations
4:51 to 5:25
Examination of the Trump administration's denial of the bribery allegations.
“And just because it happened before he was a federal judge, but found out later, doesn't mean that it can't be used against him.”
Senate Oversight and the Bribery Investigation
5:25 to 8:00
Insights into Senate oversight hearings regarding the bribery investigation.
“So to the Holman investigation, I mean, can you just speak to the president to ask the Justice Department to close the case?”
The Dark Side of Trump's Presidency
10:51 to 14:01
Discussion of the implications of Trump's presidency on corruption and crime.
“Thanks for all the hard work you're putting in.”
Concerns Over Security Clearances
14:01 to 15:36
Discussion on the implications of security clearances in government, particularly regarding Donald Trump.
“And you don't have to defer to the FBI director to pass the buck.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00For everyone who solves crime from their couch, knows more about forensics than their own job, and has trust issues with small-town sheriffs, Amazon Music's millions of podcast episodes are calling. Just download the Amazon Music app and start listening to your favorite true crime podcasts ad-free.
0:17Michael Popok:Included with Prime. Even though Emil Bovey is on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, he can be impeached. He can be removed. And based on some new reporting involving Tom Holman and his bribery scandal that just broke on MSNOW, I think Emil Bovey better watch himself. I think he should be the subject and a target of an impeachment and removal process because of his role in trying to cover up a bribery scandal at the highest levels of the Department of Justice when he was there. I'm Michael Popok. You're on Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF. Let's get down to the news story. We've been reporting for quite some time about a bribery scandal that hit about three months ago.
1:00Michael Popok:Turns out in September of 2024, Tom Homan was the target of an undercover FBI sting operation conducted in Texas to try to get him to take a bribe in return for steering federal contracts to who he thought were federal contractors, but were FBI agents. That was at the very end of the Biden administration, just a couple of months before the election. and it was arranged, we know more details, through a colleague and a former ICE official that worked with Tom Holman who basically said Tom Holman was on the take and the FBI decided to test it. Took them about a year to get it off the ground and they went and pushed a$50 ,000 cash-filled bag of kava, a restaurant, bright yellow bag takeout, pushed it across the table in return for this quid pro quo.
1:47Michael Popok:The Trump administration has been reeling trying to deny it ever since. And now we've got the new report involving Emil Bovee, that there was an internal memo, one page, that the Department of Justice senior officials prepared for Emil Bovee during the transition sometime in early January of last year before the inauguration, and that people in the room said Emil Bovee grimaced and rolled his eyes. Now, by the way, I'll put up a photo of him here. It's hard to tell when he's grimacing and not grimacing, don't you agree? He looks like Grimace from McDonald's. But he Grimace rolled his eyes because in the one page internal memo, it said that Tom Homan, who Donald Trump wanted to be a border czar, was caught in a sting operation on a$50 ,000 bribe.
2:36Michael Popok:And even Emil Bovee, former criminal defense lawyer for Donald Trump, former U.S. attorney, assistant U.S. attorney, knew that that's not a good look. But now we have the explanation as to why Donald Trump's incoming administration and presidential transition team headed by Susie Weil, incoming chief of staff, and Howard Lutnick, incoming commerce secretary, didn't want the FBI doing background checks for anyone. Despite presidential transition law that required them to enter into agreements to subject their incoming administration officials to an FBI background check. When they finally stopped jerking around on purpose and argued that they were going to do it with private background investigators.
3:23Michael Popok:This was a scheme of Boris Epstein, a criminal defense lawyer of Donald Trump, that was adopted by the presidential transition team. They didn't sign the FBI agreement until the 3rd of December. Gave them four weeks, five weeks to complete background checks on hundreds and hundreds of people coming into the administration. Now I think I know why. They knew there were going to be flies in the ointment, briberies in the candidates, if you know what I mean, including for Tom Homan. But the Emil Bovee thing is more than troubling. Emil Bovey is already at the heart of another corrupt practice of the Department of Justice and Trump administration to use the Alien Enemies Act to disappear people in March and get them away from federal oversight by federal court jurisdiction in a case involving Chief Judge Bozberg in D.C.
4:13Michael Popok:He's likely a prime witness if and when that contempt proceeding ever gets off the ground. and I just got I have news for people that are defenders of Donald Trump and Emil Bovey the fact that Donald Trump tried to insulate him and stash him by kicking him upstairs with lifetime appointment as an article 3 judge does not save him he's had to testify already and file affidavits in the Bozberg case and if it turns out that he obstructed justice and he allowed a bribed official to enter the administration through the front door, he should be impeached and removed as a federal judge. And just because it happened before he was a federal judge, but found out later, doesn't mean that it can't be used against him.
5:00Michael Popok:Now, let me get into the details that we now know. But before I do of the bribe, But let's remember that the Trump administration and its propagandists like Carolyn Leavitt have been denying effectively the existence of the internal memo since the beginning. Here's Carolyn Leavitt grimacing her way through a press conference and saying it's all a hoax. Yeah, the internal memo is a hoax. Let's play the clip. Sure. Thanks, Carolyn. So to the Holman investigation, I mean, can you just speak to the president to ask the Justice Department to close the case? And does Holman have to return the$50 ,000?
5:37Well, Mr. Holman never took the$50 ,000 that you're referring to. So you should get your facts straight, number one. Number two, this was another example of the weaponization of the Biden Department of Justice against one of President Trump's strongest and most vocal supporters in the midst of a presidential campaign. You had FBI agents going undercover to try and entrap one of the president's top allies and supporters, someone who they knew very well would be taking a government position months later. Mr. Homan did absolutely nothing wrong. And even the president's Department of Justice, even Kash Patel's FBI looked into this just to make sure they had a number of different prosecutors and FBI agents who looked into this.
6:20They found zero evidence of illegal activity or criminal wrongdoing in the White House. And the president stand by Tom Homan 100 percent because he did absolutely nothing wrong. And he is a brave public servant who has done a phenomenal job in helping the president shut down the border.
6:36Michael Popok:Now, Tom Homan, some people might be scratching their heads. Which guy is that? Oh, you know, that's the guy that if Saturday Night Live was doing a skit and they had a picture of a smiling Tom Homan, they would say, here's a picture of Tom Homan watching an orphanage burn down. He's that nice guy that always is talking about separating families, making people disappear, you know, leaking information to the public to make them feel badly about somebody that the Trump administration is going after. You know, that guy. So, in fact, here's a clip of Tom Homan rolling his eyes about the$50 ,000. Now, let me tell you something.
7:12Michael Popok:He never gave the$50 ,000 back. He never gave the$50 ,000 of taxpayer dollars back. Jack, how did he report in on his tax return? A gift? A donation? Because when the FBI's public integrity section, and we don't have a public integrity section anymore at the Department of Justice, that was mothballed and chloroformed by the Trump administration. But when we did, and people like Jack Smith used to work there, they ran this bribery, a sting operation against Tom Homan, but the target wasn't originally Tom Homan. They were targeting somebody else. So they were talking to Julian Calderas. Julian Calderas worked with Homan in ICE, was a colleague of his, and told the FBI that if he gave Tom Homan a million dollars, he would direct contracts towards somebody he thought was a federal contractor.
8:07Michael Popok:Took him a year, the FBI, they decided, let's try. So they went with Calderas to a Cava restaurant in Texas and pushed in a yellow kava bag,$50 ,000 across the table of taxpayer dollars. Tom Homan took it, took it home, still has it. And in return, they talked about getting federal contracts, you know, border patrol contracts, private security contracts, private prison contracts to run detention centers that are private, you know, things like that, that are within his wheelhouse. Now, let me show you a clip of Tom Homan sort of denying that he took the$50 ,000, but not really. Let's play the clip.
8:43Michael Popok:I know George Stephanopoulos is one of your best friends. He convicted you on television of a$50 ,000 bribe. I didn't take$50 ,000 from anybody. How did that get into the mainstream, do you think? I have no idea. Look, there's been hit pieces on me since I came back to this administration. There's got to be 30, 40 hit pieces on me about how I'm involved with contracting or government contracts. When in fact, day one, I came back. I recused myself from any discussions on any contract or any monetary decisions like that because I used to have a company that did consulting. So I cleared myself day one.
9:21What people don't talk about is I took a significant, huge pay cut to come back and serve my nation. I'm not enriching myself doing this job. Does this make you angry that they're coming at you this way? I don't care what people think about me and never have. No, because I know who I am. I work for the greatest president in history of this nation in my opinion. and we're doing the right thing every day. Okay. Hey everybody, Ben Mycelis here from the Midas Touch Network. I wanted to let you know about my podcast partner, Michael Popok's new law firm. It's called the Popok Firm. Michael Popok's pursuing his dream of starting his own law firm, really based on the popular demand by all the Midas mighty and legal AFers who are approaching Michael Popak with their cases and saying, can you help us?
10:09And at that time, Popak was not able to. So he went out on his own. He started the Popak firm where he is now handling catastrophic injury cases like car accident cases, trucking cases, malpractice cases, big negligence cases, wrongful death cases. So if you or someone you know have a case like this, the consultation with Popak's firm is free. Give him a call. See if you have a case. It's thepopakfirm.com, thepopakfirm.com, or you can call 877-POPAKAF, P-O-P-O-K-A-F. So 1-877-P-O-P-O-K-A-F. Give Michael Popak a call. And I'm really proud of you, Popak. Thanks for all the hard work you're putting in.
10:56Michael Popok:Now, there has been oversight over this. The Democrats providing it. Pam Bondi, remember her? Speaking of grimace, thinking of the grimace from McDonald's, that's Pam Bondi's adopted resting face. That's Attorney General resting face for her is like the grimace. It's always this squinty, smarmy, sarcastic. If she was a child in school, you'd send her to the principal. for making that face, trying to get her way through her Senate Oversight Committee hearings. And they asked her, Senator Schiff in particular, asked her about the bribe scandal and the 50 ,000. That didn't go well for her, even though she tried to attack Schiff.
11:42Michael Popok:Let's play the clip. Two weeks ago, four major media outlets reported that Tom Homan, the president's top deportation official working in the White House, took$50 ,000 in cash in a bag from undercover FBI agents in September 2024, just over a year ago. According to these reports, Holman indicated he would facilitate securing contracts in exchange for money once he was in office in a future Trump administration. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt denied Holman took the$50 ,000, telling a reporter, quote, Mr. Homan never took the$50 ,000 that you're referring to, so you should get your facts straight.
12:25So today I hope you can help us get our facts straight. Was that true what the White House press secretary said when she denied Homan took the money? Did he take the money? Senator Schiff, as I stated earlier, I was not in office, I was not confirmed when that was handled. So does that mean - Deputy Attorney General Blanche and Director Patel said that there was no evidence that Tom Homan committed a crime. Yet now you're putting his picture up to slander him as much as you can. I'm putting his picture up showing an interview he gave with, I think, Fox, in which he was asked explicitly about these allegations that he took a$50 ,000 bribe.
13:13And he refused to answer. You were asked by my colleague from Vermont whether you will support providing a video or audio tape, if it exists, of Mr. Holman taking$50 ,000 in bribe money from the FBI. Will you support a request by this committee to provide that tape or tapes to the committee, yes or no? Senator Schiff, you can talk to Director Patel about that. I'm talking to you about it. You're the attorney general. This will be your decision. Will you support? You don't have to tell me what is my decision and what is not my decision. I said you could talk to Director Patel. You think you've got a gotcha with Tom Holm and our borders are.
13:52Excuse me. Who's been out there fighting for our country since Donald Trump took office. I'm trying to ask you a question. Regular order, please. And you don't have to defer to the FBI director to pass the buck. So I'm asking you, will you support or request so that the committee, or indeed I believe the American people, should be able to see that video or audio tape? Will you support that request? Will you apologize to Donald Trump? I guess the answer is you won't support that request.
14:20Michael Popok:The bottom line is, besides Emil Bove, who knew about the internal memo of the Trump administration? And how did this guy get security clearance? How did he get security clearance? The reason we want FBI background checks done properly is we want to make sure people aren't Russian assets, Chinese assets, terrorists, or corrupt people that take bribes. to come into government. But when you have the felon in chief, this is the dark side, people. If you voted for Donald Trump, this is what you get. He's never saw a crime that he didn't look past or he didn't pardon. You know, when you have a criminally insane occupant of the White House and the Oval Office, this is what you get.
15:04Michael Popok:Let him in. Forget the national security checks. Why do we need national security clearances? I'll give it to him. See, the president has the ability to grant clearances even without an FBI check. And that's obviously what happened. But the people demand information. And we demand to know why Tom Holman is still in the government. Why do I have to hear him opening his pie hole about cases like Abrego Garcia and making families disappear when he shouldn't be in the government at all? So we're going to continue to follow it all right here on Midas Touch. I've got great news for the coming new year.
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From the publisher
Should a sitting federal judge affiliated with Trump be impeached and removed for his role in allowing a corrupt Trump official to join the Administration? Those are some of the questions being asked today based on new reporting from MS-NOW that then senior DOJ Official Emil Bove (now Judge Bove) was handed an internal FBI and DOJ memo that disclosed that Border Czar Tom Homan was caught in a $50,000 bribe undercover sting operation, and then did nothing about it, allowing Trump to grant Homan security clearance. Michael Popok takes a hard look at Bove’s actions and what should happen next, as the Trump Administration embarks on yet another scandal cover up.
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