It’s been nearly a month since the public first learned about the bribery controversy surrounding White House border czar Tom Homan, which means administration officials have had plenty of time to come up with answers to obvious questions and talking points related to the burgeoning scandal. They don’t appear to have come up with much.
Last week, for example, several Democratic senators pressed Attorney General Pam Bondi for answers about the Homan matter, and she refused to engage when pressed for details, dodging every relevant question.
On Sunday, another prominent member of Team Trump struggled just as much. Politico reported:
Vice President JD Vance sparred Sunday with George Stephanopoulos in a discussion when the ABC host asked about White House border czar Tom Homan. The segment on ‘This Week’ ended with Stephanopoulos saying ‘You did not answer the question’ even as Vance tried one final time to rebut him.
For those just joining us, undercover FBI agents recorded Homan about a year ago allegedly accepting $50,000 in cash after indicating he could help the agents (who were posing as businessmen) win government contracts in a second Trump administration.
The matter was under investigation, right up until Trump returned to the White House, at which point the probe stalled. Last month, the case was closed altogether.
Initially, there were questions about why the investigation into Homan ended so abruptly and the degree to which politics might’ve been involved in derailing the probe.
But the other question is about the alleged bribe itself.
Homan sat down with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham last month, and the host offered him an opportunity to deny the underlying allegations. The White House official insisted that he “did nothing illegal,” but it was hard not to notice that he carefully avoided the underlying question about whether he accepted $50,000 in cash in a bag from undercover FBI agents.
Complicating matters, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted that Homan “never took the $50,000,” which was at odds with everything we’ve learned about the case.
With this in mind, Stephanopoulos asked the vice president a reasonable question: Did Homan keep the money, or did he give it back?
STEPHANOPOULOS: I didn't insinuate anything. I asked you whether Tom Homan accepted $50k as was heard on an audio tape recorded by the FBI in September 2024. You did not answer the question. Thank you for your time.VANCE: No, George, I sai–STEPHANOPOULOS: We'll be right back
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-10-12T15:33:17.280Z
Vance insisted that the White House border czar “did not take a bribe,” which may or may not be true, but which also wasn’t an answer to the underlying question.








