Devlin Barrett

Right.

The investigators thought of it as this is the start of the relationship.

This is the start of the process.

Right.

It wasn't necessarily that you give him this $50,000 and then he immediately starts doing things for you.

One source described it as, you know, they paid money to make a friend in a regular corruption investigation.

There would naturally be follow-up meetings, maybe follow-up payments.

That's certainly a possibility in such an investigation scenario.

Exactly.

They have a very strong start to a case.

They have very good evidence and they have a very good basis to proceed with their investigation.

And then Trump wins the election.

And within days of Trump winning the election, the president-elect announces that Tom Homan will become his border czar.

And not many people know the ins and outs of these czar positions that government and White Houses sometimes announce.

It's not something you're nominated for.

It's not something that the Senate confirms you for.

It's very much sort of a point person for an administration on a particular subject.

But what matters in this instance is that because there's no Senate confirmation, there's not the same kind of background check scrubbing that goes on for a czar position as there is for a cabinet official or a deputy cabinet official.

And that's important in Holman's situation because there is this underlying outstanding case.

It's really unclear.