Boston Mayor Michelle Wu blasted President Donald Trump’s administration and border czar Tom Homan Tuesday, over allegations that Homan accepted money from undercover agents during a covert FBI operation last year.
The incident led to a bribery investigation that was recently shuttered by the Justice Department, igniting concerns about unchecked unethical behavior and political interference in investigatory agencies long presumed independent.
Speaking on GBH’s Boston Public Radio, Wu said her reaction to the news was a sadly familiar feeling.
“It wasn’t even surprising at this point that there is a case of such blatant corruption with someone who is in such an important and authoritative role in our formerly democratic government structure,” Wu said.
“Someone who has been saying a lot about what following the law means … when, in fact behind the scenes, there’s outright bribery and corruption taking place,” she said, adding that the now-closed investigation is a sign of “a very familiar routine” throughout the Trump administration.
Wu’s comments come as the White House has expressed full support for Homan despite political outcry from Democrats calling to make materials from the closed investigation public. The White House has also, without providing evidence, slammed the investigation as politically motivated.
MSNBC reported earlier this month that multiple people familiar with the situation said the FBI recorded Homan accepting $50,000 from agents posing as business people looking to score government contracts in a second Trump administration. Homan had allegedly indicated he could assist those seeking access to contracts.
Wu, who after her primary opponent Josh Kraft dropped out of the race, became the only mayoral candidate on the November municipal election ballot, has positioned herself as a political foil to Trump and engaged in a high profile back-and-forth with Homan since he vowed to “bring hell” to Boston over its immigration policies.
She said during her regular hour-long segment Tuesday that the news of Homan’s alleged bribe acceptance has wider implications than just one Trump administration official.
“I wish this were a conversation just about Tom Homan, someone whose behavior has already been so shameful, just from the very beginning all the way through, and who clearly doesn’t understand the law…but this is unfortunately a marker of a larger pattern within this federal administration,” said the mayor noting the president’s acceptance of a luxury jet donated from Qatar, his enrichment through crypto dealings and the multiple multi-million-dollar settlements the administration has reached with major media companies locked in legal disputes.
Wu also responded to news of a lawsuit brought by a former employee fired earlier this year in connection with a domestic disturbance.
“I finally had the chance to read through kind of what was alleged and being presented there,” Wu said of the suit. “There were some new things that were presented in there that I know are flat out not true,” she said, declining to specify what aspects of the suit are incorrect.
The suit comes from Marwa Khudaynazar, the former chief of staff for the city’s Office of Police Accountability and Transparency, who claimed that one of Wu’s top aides, Economic Opportunity and Inclusion chief Segun Idowu, inappropriately propositioned her hours before she and her boyfriend, another city employee, were arrested. Khudaynazar, who has filed court documents estimating a loss of income and anticipated loss of income totaling nearly half a million dollars, has also claimed that her dismissal was a move made to shield Idowu and the Wu administration from embarrassment.
“We’ll go through the court process,” Wu said adding that there are many things within the lawsuit that “will be resolved clearly and quickly in court.”
The mayor also expressed support for state-wide speed regulations for motorized scooters and disclosed that she and her former mayoral opponent Josh Kraft have not spoken since he left a voicemail just before the news of his exit from the race broke.
“I called right back a few minutes after that and we have not connected since then,” she said.
