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Vice President JD Vance clashed with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Sunday A slow-burning scandal surrounding Tom Homan, The Trump administration’s border czar.
on abc this weekStephanopoulos concluded an interview with the Vice President by asking about reports from ProPublica and other news outlets indicating that FBI officials had a video containing Homan An FBI agent is seen taking a $50,000 bribe while offering to connect interested parties with lucrative federal contracts related to immigration enforcement.
White House denied that homan accepted cashBut Homan himself has not done so directly in commenting about the closed investigation.
Stephanopoulos repeatedly pressed the Vice President on this point. White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt denied at a briefing in September that Homan had taken the money.
“I’m asking you, did he accept the $50,000 that was caught on the surveillance tape?” Stephanopoulos put the pressure on Vance. “Did he accept that $50,000 or not?”
“George, I don’t know what you’re talking about. What did he accept the $50,000 for?” Vance replied.
Stephanopoulos pressed: “He was recorded on an audiotape, an FBI surveillance tape, in September 2024, accepting $50,000 in cash. Did he keep that money?”
“Accepting $50,000 for what, George? I’m not even sure I understand the question. Is it illegal to take payments for services performed? The FBI hasn’t prosecuted him.”
Vance then repeatedly pressed the anchor about whether Homan had accepted the money, causing Stephanopoulos to interrupt him and end the interview.
“And here, George, is why fewer and fewer people watch your show, and why you’re losing credibility,” Vance complained. “Because you’re talking for five minutes with the Vice President of the United States about this story about Tom Homan, a story I’ve read about, but I don’t even know the video you’re talking about. Meanwhile, low-income women can’t get food because the Democrats and Chuck Schumer have shut down the government.”
The anchor followed up with more conversation with his guest: “I asked you if Tom Homan accepted $50,000, as heard in an audiotape recorded by the FBI in September 2024, and you didn’t answer the question. Thank you for your time.”
ABC then stopped advertising over Vance’s protest.
When asked about the story in September, Homan told a NewsNation reporter that the allegations of bribery were “baseless”, and indirectly denied reporting to Fox News: “I didn’t do anything criminal. I didn’t do anything illegal.”
The White House press team has been much more trenchant in its response to reporting by ProPublica, Reuters, MSNBC and other outlets indicating that undercover agents gave Homan $50,000 in cash, and videotaped it.
“Mr. Homan never took the $50,000 that you’re referring to,” Carolyn Levitt told a reporter in September, adding that he “did absolutely nothing wrong, and even the President’s Justice Department, even Kash Patel’s FBI looked at it to make sure – they had several different prosecutors and FBI agents look at it – they found no evidence of illegal activity or criminal wrongdoing.” Not found.
“The White House and the President stand behind Tom Homan 100 percent because he has done nothing wrong,” he said.
Homan ran a consultancy firm after serving as acting ICE director during Trump’s first term in the White House. according to A ProPublica investigationAt least a half-dozen companies won contracts from a firm for which he worked exclusively as a consultant, due to the belief that Homan’s connections would grease the wheels and make it much easier to obtain contracts arising from the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement.
Multiple news outlets confirmed that Homan was investigated by the FBI at the end of the Biden administration, and MSNBC first reported Homan was recorded by FBI agents advising that he could help their respective companies win those government contracts, before taking $50,000 in cash.
there are democrats in congress vowed to investigate The issue came to light after the Justice Department closed its investigation into Trump when he took office in January.
Under the second Trump presidency, the Justice Department has turned around The move comes after Trump ordered his attorney general to launch prosecutions against Democrats to target the president’s growing list of political enemies. An accidentally-public truth social post.