Attorney General Pam Bondi is dodging basic questions about what happened to $50,000 in cash allegedly handed to ICE Director and Trump’s so-called “border czar” Tom Homan during an FBI sting operation in 2024.
In a Senate hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) grilled Bondi over the sting, which reportedly involved federal agents delivering the money—”evidently in a paper bag”—to Homan in exchange for steering federal contracts ahead of Trump’s potential return to the White House.
“What became of the $50,000 in cash that the FBI paid to Mr. Homan in a paper bag, evidently?” Whitehouse asked directly.
Bondi didn’t answer. Instead, she leaned on a vague blanket statement: “Senator, as Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche recently stated, the investigation of Mr. Homan was subjected to a full review by the FBI, agents, and DOJ prosecutors. They found no credible evidence of any wrongdoing.”
But Whitehouse wasn’t asking whether Homan broke the law. He was asking about the money. And Bondi simply wouldn’t say what happened to it.
“That was not my question,” Whitehouse shot back. “My question was, what became of the $50,000 in cash that the FBI delivered, evidently in a paper bag, to Mr. Homan?”
Again, Bondi didn’t answer.
“Senator, I’d look at your facts,” she deflected.
“Are you saying that they did not deliver $50,000 in cash to Mr. Homan?” Whitehouse pressed.
“Senator, as recently stated, the investigation of Mr. Homan was subjected to a full review by the FBI agents, by Department of Justice prosecutors,” Bondi repeated.
“That’s a different question,” Whitehouse pointed out. “What became of the $50,000? Did the FBI get it back? Can’t you answer this question?”
Rather than give a yes or no, Bondi punted the question to FBI Director Kash Patel, saying, “I’d ask him.”
Then came the blunt follow-up: “Did Homan keep the $50,000?”
Bondi responded not with facts, but with a jab.
“You know, you’re very concerned about money and people taking money, and you rail against dark money,” she said. “Yet you work with dark money groups all the time, Senator Whitehouse.”
When Whitehouse tried one more time—asking if Homan reported the $50,000 as income to the IRS—Bondi pivoted to an entirely unrelated accusation, implying the senator himself had engaged in “corruption” tied to legislation benefiting his wife’s company.
At that point, Whitehouse called out the performance for what it was.
“Questions here are actually pretty specific. So having you respond with completely irrelevant far-right internet talking points really is not very helpful here.”
Watch the exchange below:
