Attorney General Pam Bondi has refused to answer questions about a $50,000 sting involving Donald Trump’s border czar, throwing FBI Director Kash Patel under the bus instead.
In a combative hearing on Capitol Hill, the Attorney General was grilled on a bribery probe involving Tom Homan, who allegedly accepted a $50,000 bag of cash from undercover FBI agents posing as business people seeking government contracts.
The sting took place last September when Homan was reportedly recorded accepting the money in exchange for “facilitating” contracts for a future Trump administration.
However, after Trump took office in January, and Homan was given a key role to carry out the president’s mass deportation strategy, Bondi’s Justice Department shut down the investigation.
At a Senate Judiciary Hearing on Tuesday, Democrat Senator Sheldon Whitehouse asked Bondi what happened to the $50,000.
“As recently stated, the investigation of Mr Homan was subjected to a full review by five FBI agents and five Department of Justice prosecutors. They found no evidence of wrongdoing,” Bondi replied.
“That’s a different question,” Whitehouse pointed out. “What became of the $50,000? Did the FBI get it back?”
“You’re welcome to talk to the FBI,” Bondi said.
“They report to you,” Whitehouse said, pressing her again. “Can’t you answer this question?”
“Senator Whitehouse, you’re welcome to discuss this with Director Patel,” Bondi replied.
The exchange was one of many evasive answers Bondi gave during the hearing, in which she was also grilled on everything from the Epstein files and the weaponization of the justice system, to Trump’s push to deploy the military across U.S cities.
However, her decision to defer to Patel underlines the sometimes tense relationship she has had with the FBI director and his deputy, Dan Bongino.
Bondi has been at odds with the two FBI officials over her handling of the Epstein case, culminating in an angry confrontation at the White House earlier this year, when an irate attorney general accused Bongino of leaking information to the news media.
Patel, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and one of her deputies, Taylor Budowich, were witnesses to the clash.
The $50,000 sting is also sensitive for the White House, which has been tied in knots over the story since it was broken by MSNBC last month.
At the time, reporters Carol Leonnig and Ken Dilanian described Homan accepting the money in exchange for “facilitating” contracts in a future Trump administration.
“We reviewed internal documents saying Homan accepted the cash payment from undercover @FBI agents in September 2024,” Leonnig posted on X.
The evasiveness of the AG speaks for itself. If Homan had not kept the 50 grand he received from undercover FBI agents, she–and HE–surely would have said so! https://t.co/2iVW5CbNLd
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) October 7, 2025
But White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt contradicted this, telling reporters last month that Homan “never took the $50,000 that you’re referring to, so you should get your facts straight.”
Homan, however, did not deny taking the money, simply saying “I did nothing criminal, I did nothing illegal, and there’s hit piece after hit piece after hit piece.”
“I’m glad the FBI and DOJ came out and said that nothing illegal happened and no criminal activity,” he told Laura Ingraham last month during a Fox News interview.
Bondi repeated this during her hearing, saying the FBI and the DOJ “found no credible evidence of wrongdoing.” She then personally attacked Whitehouse for having links to Democrat donor Reid Hoffman, a former Epstein associate, and accusing him of pushing for legislation that she said helped subsidize his wife’s company.
In turn, the Senator clapped back.
“The questions here are actually pretty specific, so having you respond with completely irrelevant far right internet talking points really is not very helpful here,” he told her.
David Axelrod, a former adviser to President Barack Obama, said Bondi’s evasiveness “speaks for itself.”
“If Homan had not kept the 50 grand he received from undercover FBI agents, she–and HE–surely would have said so!” the Democrat wrote on X.
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