The Dictatorship
The former ICE officer who led the FBI to Tom Homan
Tom Homan, the White House border czar, became entangled in an FBI sting last year after an associate of his suggested to undercover FBI agents that Homan could facilitate future government contracts in exchange for big money, according to four sources familiar with the investigation and a government document.
Julian “Jace” Calderas, a former U.S. immigration official who worked under Homan in the Obama administration, allegedly proposed to the agents — who were posing as businessmen — that Homan, in exchange for $1 million, could help them win lucrative federal contracts if Donald Trump became president again, according to an internal Justice Department document describing the investigation reviewed by BLN.
Calderas, co-owner of a detention services and government contracting firm in Texas, first allegedly proposed the scheme in May 2023. He held several subsequent conversations with the agents about his cash-for-contracts proposal, culminating in a Sept. 20, 2024, meeting in Dallas at which agents recorded Homan accepting $50,000 in cash, according to the document and sources.
At that same meeting, the document shows, Calderas accepted $10,000 from the undercover FBI agents. His alleged proposal to undercover FBI agents, which had not been previously reported, led to a full-blown Justice Department investigation of Homan, who at the time was a private consultant helping clients obtain government contracts.
A former ICE officer and associate of the White House border czar sparked a full-blown criminal investigation of Homan after he proposed a contracts-for-money scheme to undercover FBI agents.
“I know nothing about this,” Calderas told BLN by phone last Monday when asked if he was aware of the criminal investigation and his alleged role in it. “If this is the case, I’m going to need to talk to my lawyer.”
Calderas then ended the call. He did not answer whether he had accepted $10,000 or whether he remembered such a meeting with Homan in Texas. He did not respond to follow-up messages or emails seeking comment from him or his lawyer. BLN reached out directly to Calderas and to his company, XFed Global, which he founded with fellow former officials from the Department of Homeland Security, according to the firm’s web site.
The White House has criticized the investigation as a politically motivated inquiry started under the Biden administration. Homan said during an interview on Fox News last Monday that he did nothing wrong, but he did not address whether he accepted the $50,000.
On Thursday, the White House dismissed the significance of internal investigative accounts describing Calderas’ role in allegedly suggesting that Homan could influence future contracts in exchange for payment. A spokesperson said the revelations did not change the White House’s view that Homan was unfairly targeted.
“This changes nothing,” White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson said in a statement to BLN. She called the now-shuttered federal criminal probe a “blatantly political investigation, which found no evidence of illegal activity” and one she said was driven by Biden Justice Department appointees “to target President Trump’s allies.”
The Justice Department referred questions to the FBI, which declined to comment. Jackson said that Homan “has not been involved with any contract award decisions” and that he is a “doing a phenomenal job on behalf of President Trump and the country.”
Calderas’ role in the Homan investigation, which multiple sources described on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, runs counter to the Trump administration’s narrative since BLN published its initial exclusive story this month that the FBI had been investigating Homan for possible bribery.
BLN also reported that the investigation stalled after Trump became president for a second time in January. His political appointees at the FBI and Justice Department shut down the case last month.
FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, in an unusual joint statement, said FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors “found no credible evidence of any criminal wrongdoing” by Homan and that “as a result, the investigation has been closed.”
Last Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters from her podium in the briefing room: “Mr. Homan never took the $50,000 that you’re referring to, so you should get your facts straight.”
Yet Homan, during the Fox News interview, did not specifically deny accepting the cash. “I did nothing criminal. I did nothing illegal. It’s hit piece after hit piece after hit piece,” he said.
Sources familiar with the probe told BLN that the FBI felt duty-bound to begin investigating Homan after Calderas told agents in an unrelated investigation that Homan was willing to influence which companies would win federal contracts in a second Trump administration in exchange for money.
In the fall of 2024, Homan was running his own consulting firm to help contractors win border-related contracts and publicly touting that he would serve in a senior role carrying out Trump’s promised mass deportations if the GOP candidate won the election. Calderas, a former border agent and Immigration and Customs Enforcement official, could stand to benefit from his longstanding ties to Homan as CEO of the San Antonio-based XFed.
Launched in 2016, the company promotes its status as a veteran- and minority-owned business with “insider perspective” on Department of Homeland Security procurement, a lure for prospective clients seeking government contracts.
The company web site of an associate of Tom Homan who proposed a cash-for-contracts scheme to undercover FBI agents, boasts that the firm’s “operational expertise, regulatory knowledge, and small business agility makes us the ideal partner for organizations seeking to excel in the federal contracting arena.”
“Our leadership team brings unparalleled expertise from senior executive positions within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Customs and Border Protection,” its web site reads. “This insider perspective, combined with decades of operational experience managing billion-dollar federal contracts, positions XFed Global as the definitive partner for complex government contracting challenges.”
The site says those who partner or seek to consult with XFed will gain “competitive advantages” in large-scale contracts. “XFed Global’s unique combination of operational expertise, regulatory knowledge, and small business agility makes us the ideal partner for organizations seeking to excel in the federal contracting arena,” it reads.
That Calderas attended the meeting at which Homan allegedly accepted $50,000 in exchange for offering to facilitate future government contracts would have been an important factor for prosecutors. A conspiracy charge requires that more than one person enter into a corrupt agreement, and undercover federal agents can’t be part of a conspiracy.
Calderas retired from Immigration and Customs Enforcement as deputy field office director in San Antonio in 2016, when Homan worked in senior ICE leadership as executive assistant director of enforcement and removal operations.
Calderas has expressed support for Homan in public comments and on social media. And Homan served as an advisor to Calderas’ company. In 2019, Calderas publicly praised Homan on a LinkedIn profile bearing his name for “speaking truth to power” at a House Oversight hearing on the U.S. border.
That LinkedIn account, which detailed Calderas’ work experience and promoted XFed Global’s services, was deleted at some point after BLN contacted him and his lawyer last week about the contractor’s role in the federal criminal investigation of Homan.
Two years later, on the same LinkedIn page, a posting under Calderas’ name said: “Tom doing a great job of speaking truth to power! We need more of this.”
On his company’s Facebook accountwhich remained active on Monday afternoon, Calderas posted on March 30, 2017: “My retired badge arrived today. This is the badge I wore from the time DHS was created in 2003 after 9/11.” He added, “If these badges could talk they would tell some incredible stories.”
It featured a photo of a hand holding a small blue plaque containing a “retired ICE officer” badge with three lines underneath it: “Julian ‘Jace’ Calderas. Deputy Field Office Director. 30 Years Service To Country.”
Carol Leonnig is an investigative reporter and four-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Democratic lawmaker is asking a federal judge to force the Kennedy Center to block and reverse efforts to attach President Donald Trump’s name to the historic performing arts venue.
In a motion filed Wednesday, Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio argues that Congress was clear in its intent that the Kennedy Center is named for the late President John F. Kennedy — and no one else.
“Renaming the Kennedy Center for President Trump — without any authorization from Congress — undermines the Center’s raison d’être, and frustrates its purpose as the only memorial to President Kennedy in Washington, D.C.,” the motion argues.
Trump’s handpicked board of directors voted in December to rename the venue as the Trump-Kennedy Center, arguing the Republican president deserved the recognition for his efforts to renovate the institution, which was named for the Democratic president assassinated in 1963. But the move immediately drew protest from Democrats and some in the Kennedy family along with questions from scholars and historians about whether the move was legally permissible.
Beatty’s motion argues that lawmakers have made clear at various points throughout the Kennedy Center’s history that no other name should appear on the building.
“Congress was particularly sensitive that no other names appear on the Center’s exterior walls, other than the signage designating the institution as a memorial for President Kennedy,” according to the motion.
A day after the board’s December decision, Trump’s name was added to the Kennedy Center’s facade, an iconic part of Washington’s cityscape that rests on the banks of the Potomac River. The name change has also been reflected on the Kennedy Center’s website and social media channels.
“We are asking the court to enforce the law and reverse this illegal renaming,” said Beatty’s lawyers, Norm Eisen, a board member at Democracy Defenders Action, and Nathaniel Zelinsky, senior counsel at the Washington Litigation Group, in a statement. “This abuse of power is an attack on the rule of law and the memory of John Kennedy and cannot stand.”
A central part of the capital’s arts scene since it opened in 1971, the Kennedy Center is being closed by Trump this summer for a renovation that’s expected to last for about two years. That is the subject of a separate legal effort as a coalition of eight cultural and historic preservation groups is suing to block further physical changes to the Kennedy Center.
Through her position in Congress, Beatty is an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board. A federal judge ruled earlier this month that she could participate in a board meeting but didn’t force the board to allow her to vote on the closure.
LONDON (AP) — Former Google executive Matt Brittin was named as the BBC’s new director-general on Wednesday, taking the helm at the U.K.’s national broadcaster as it faces an uncertain future and a $10 billion lawsuit from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Brittin, 57, who has a background in tech, rather than traditional broadcasting, spent almost two decades at Google, becoming the company’s president in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He is also a former consultant at management consultancy McKinsey,
BBC Chairman Samir Shah said Brittin brings a “deep experience of leading a high-profile and highly complex organization through transformation” and arrives as the BBC faces “radical reform.”
Brittin said the 104-year-old BBC is “an extraordinary, uniquely British asset.”
“Now, more than ever, we need a thriving BBC that works for everyone in a complex, uncertain and fast changing world,” he said in a statement.
Brittin, who will start his new role on May 18, succeeds Tim Davie, who resigned in November over criticism of how the broadcaster edited a speech Trump made on Jan. 6, 2021, before some of the president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
A BBC documentary aired days before the 2024 presidential election spliced together three quotes from the speech into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.”
Trump is suing the broadcaster for defamation in a Florida court, accusing the BBC of broadcasting a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction” of him, and of “a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence” the 2024 presidential election.
Shah has apologized to Trump over the edited speech, admitting that it gave “the impression of a direct call for violent action.” But the BBC rejects claims it defamed the president and has asked the federal court in the Southern District of Florida to dismiss the suit, arguing that the case could have a “chilling effect” on robust reporting on public figures and events. It also says the case should be thrown out because the documentary was never aired in Florida or the U.S.
The broadcaster is also facing a once-a-decade process of renewing its governing charter, which sets out how much public money it will receive. The BBC is funded by an annual license fee — currently set at 174.50 pounds ($230) — which is paid by all U.K. households who watch live TV or any BBC content.
The license fee has long had opponents, not least rival commercial broadcasters, and they have grown louder in an era of digital streaming when many people no longer have television sets or follow traditional TV schedules.
The center-left Labour government says it will ensure the BBC has “sustainable and fair” funding but has not ruled out replacing the license fee with another funding model.
Brittin said the BBC faces “a moment of real risk, yet also real opportunity.”
He added: “The BBC needs the pace and energy to be both where stories are, and where audiences are. To build on the reach, trust and creative strengths today, confront challenges with courage, and thrive as a public service fit for the future. I can’t wait to start this work.”
Founded in 1922 as a radio service, the BBC operates 15 U.K. national and regional TV channels, several international channels, 10 national radio stations, dozens of local radio stations, the globe-spanning World Service radio and copious digital output, including the iPlayer streaming service.
It broadcasts reams of sports and entertainment programming, including shows such as “Doctor Who,” “EastEnders,” “The Traitors” and “Strictly Come Dancing.”
But it’s the BBC’s news output that draws the most scrutiny. The broadcaster is bound by the terms of its charter to be impartial in its output and is frequently a political football, with conservatives seeing a leftist slant in its news programs and some liberals accusing it of having a conservative bias.
The BBC is seeking a new chief executive to lead its news and current affairs division after Deborah Turness quit alongside Davie in November.
Transgender women will be barred from participating in women’s events at the next Olympics, according to a policy the International Olympic Committee announced Thursday.
The decision follows a demand for such a rule from U.S. President Donald Trump, and comes despite objections from researchers and advocates for trans athletes.
The policy change, announced ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, aligns with an executive order Trump issued last year directing Secretary of State Marco Rubio to “use all appropriate and available measures” to ensure the IOC “amends the standards governing Olympic sporting events to promote fairness, safety, and the best interests of female athletes by ensuring that eligibility for participation in women’s sporting events is determined according to sex and not gender identity or testosterone reduction.”
The policy will apply to the 2028 Games and all others going forward and is not retroactive, the IOC said. In a video statement announcing the news, IOC President Kirsty Coventry cast the decision as a matter of fairness.
“At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat,” she said. “So, it is absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category. In addition, in some sports it would simply not be safe.”
As a result of the new IOC policy, eligibility for participation in the female category will be determined by a one-time gene test — the same one World Athletics, the international governing body for track and field, introduced last year. The IOC says the test is highly accurate and nonintrusive, requiring only a cheek swab or blood test.
The policy says athletes who are deemed ineligible to complete in the female category can compete in either the male category or in sports that do not classify athletes by sex, such as equestrian.
But who the policy will actually affect, and how, remains to be seen. There have been few openly trans athletes at the Olympics, Michael Waters, author of “The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports,” told MS NOW.
Only one openly transgender woman, Laurel Hubbard, a weightlifter from New Zealand, has ever competed at the Summer Games.
Waters said he sees the IOC’s decision as “a culmination of a broader cultural and political backlash that’s been brewing” regarding the participation of trans people in sports. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee also banned trans athletes from competing in the women’s category last summer, he noted, and the international skiing and boxing federations have also implemented mandatory gene testing for the same purpose.
That test has also been a source of controversy.
The test is meant to determine the presence or absence of the SRY gene, found on the Y chromosome, which triggers male reproductive development. But cisgender women and intersex people can also have the gene. At the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Waters pointed out, eight women failed the SRY gene test before later being reinstated.
“That was one of many reasons why these tests were banned in the first place,” he said. “They were quite inaccurate, in addition to being discriminatory.”
Andrew Sinclair, the Australian researcher who discovered the SRY gene in 1990said last year that he disagreed with World Athletics’ decision to use the test to determine biological sex, calling it an “overly simplistic assertion.”
“Using SRY to establish biological sex is wrong because all it tells you is whether or not the gene is present,” wrote Sinclair, a professor at the University of Melbourne. “It does not tell you how SRY is functioning, whether a testis has formed, whether testosterone is produced and, if so, whether it can be used by the body.”
Sinclair also wrote that a male lab technician could inadvertently contaminate a test, producing a false positive.
The IOC previously mandated “gender verification” for female athletes from 1968 to 1998, but removed the requirement ahead of the 2000 Olympics in Sydney on a “trial basis.” Sinclair wrote that decision came after he and other experts persuaded the IOC to drop it.
Prior to the most recent change, IOC guidelines released in 2021 said there should not be a “presumption of advantage due to biological sex,” leaving eligibility decisions to each sport’s international governing body.
The announcement of the new policy followed an IOC review of the issue beginning in September 2024, which the body says included consultations with a range of experts and an online survey of 1,100 athletes. It marks the highest-profile decision by Coventry, a former Olympic swimmer from Zimbabwe who was elected president of the IOC last March.
It also comes as the Trump administration and its Republican allies have made a pet issue of excluding trans people — and trans women specifically — from public life, women’s sports and American history.
Trump and congressional Republicans are currently aiming to exclude trans women from the forthcoming Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum, as MS NOW recently reported. The president has also signed executive orders stating the government would only recognize biological sex rather than gender identity, that transgender troops could not serve in the military and that minors should not receive gender-affirming care. (Those orders are all the subject of ongoing litigation.)
Trump allies celebrated the IOC decision.
“President Trump’s Executive Order protecting women’s sports made this happen!” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X.
Advocates for LGBTQ athletes predicted the decision would lead to discrimination.
A group that represents intersex youth, interACT, said the decision could harm intersex women athletes, despite the IOC’s assurances that it will not.
“Sex testing invades all women’s privacy, forcing them to give up their personal medical and genetic information for the IOC to determine if they are ‘woman enough’ to compete,” the group’s executive director, Erika Lorshbough, said in a statement. “Any policy that intends to discriminate against transgender athletes also harms intersex women, especially those with chromosomal and hormonal variations. All women deserve the chance to pursue their Olympic dreams.”
The new policy “invites confusion, stigma and invasive scrutiny rather than clarity or safety,” said Brian Dittmeier, director of LGBTQI equality at the National Women’s Law Center.
“At a moment when women athletes continue to face real and persistent inequities — including unequal funding, fewer opportunities and pervasive harassment and abuse — it is deeply harmful to prioritize exclusion over meaningful progress,” Dittmeier added.
Julianne McShane is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW who also covers the politics of abortion and reproductive rights. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at jmcshane.19 or follow her on X or Bluesky.
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