The latest controversy surrounding White House border czar Tom Homan is relatively straightforward. About a year ago, the FBI, as part of an undercover operation, recorded Homan allegedly accepting $50,000 in cash after indicating he could help the agents win government contracts in a second Trump administration.

The matter was under investigation, right up until Donald Trump returned to the White House, at which point the probe stalled. Earlier this month, the case was closed altogether.

Naturally, there are lingering concerns about the possible political motivations surrounding the demise of the probe, but at the heart of the matter is a simpler question: Did Homan take the money?

The White House official sat down with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on Monday night, and the host offered him an opportunity to deny the underlying allegations. Homan’s on-air comments, however, fell far short of resolving the matter.

“I did nothing criminal,” he said. “I did nothing illegal.”

Perhaps, but Homan made no effort to deny, directly or indirectly, the reporting that he accepted $50,000 in cash in a Cava bag from undercover FBI agents.

Hours earlier, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt added a wrinkle that was likely intended to help her colleague, but seemed to have the opposite effect.

When a reporter asked the president’s chief spokesperson about the case — Leavitt no doubt anticipated questions along these lines — and the money the border czar allegedly took, the press secretary delivered a brief and condescending lecture to the journalist who broached the subject.

“Mr. Homan never took the $50,000 that you’re referring to, so you should get your facts straight,” Leavitt said, before concocting a new conspiracy theory about FBI wrongdoing.

She added that the public can have confidence in the resolution of the matter because “even Kash Patel’s FBI looked into this, just to make sure.” (Evidently, Americans are supposed to be reassured that the conspiratorial podcast personality who leads the FBI has said everything’s fine.)

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The trouble is, Leavitt’s assertion that Homan “never took the $50,000” was a new claim — the White House didn’t include this detail in its original denial — and as MSNBC reported soon after, the claim appears to conflict with everything that’s known about the case.

Fortunately, this can all be resolved quickly and effectively. As MSNBC’s Ken Dilanian explained online, “To settle this, it would be great if the White House would release the case files and any FBI recordings of Homan’s meetings with undercover agents posing as businessmen.”

Exactly. The White House says Homan didn’t take the money; the latest reporting suggests he did; and the answer is a knowable thing. The FBI recorded the interaction, and it can simply release the tapes.

Maybe there’s been a big misunderstanding. Maybe Leavitt is telling the truth, and the alleged $50,000 bribe never reached Homan’s hands. Maybe the White House border czar is above reproach and has been falsely accused.

All the Trump administration has to do is release the tapes and prove it. The whole process should only take a couple of hours.

Of course, if Leavitt was lying and the FBI’s tapes show that Homan did take the $50,000 in cash, there are a number of additional questions that would need answers. Where’s the money? Did he give it back? Will he give it back? Did he pay taxes on the income?

None of this has escaped the attention of Democratic lawmakers. “The act was caught on camera,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts noted. “The administration must turn over the tapes to Congress.” Similarly, Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan demanded access to the FBI case file.

“Release the Epstein files” has been a common mantra for quite a while. “Release the Homan tapes” is just getting started.