Vice President JD Vance clashed with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Sunday over a slow-burning scandal enveloping Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s border czar.
On ABC’s This Week, Stephanopoulos concluded an interview with the vice president by asking about reports from ProPublica and other news outlets indicating that FBI officials are in possession of a video in which Homan is seen accepting a $50,000 bribe from an FBI agent while offering to connect interested parties with lucrative federal contracts related to immigration enforcement.
The White House has denied that Homan accepted the cash, but Homan himself has not directly done so when commenting about the since-closed investigation.
Stephanopoulos repeatedly pressed the vice president on this point. The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, denied that Homan took the money at a briefing in September.
“I’m asking you, did he accept the $50,000 that was caught on the surveillance tape?” Stephanopoulos pressed Vance. “Did he accept that $50,000 or not?”
“George, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Did he accept $50,000 for what?” Vance responded.
Stephanopoulos pressed: “He was recorded on an audiotape in September of 2024, an FBI surveillance tape, accepting $50,000 in cash. Did he keep that money?”
“Accepting $50,000 for doing what, George? I am not even sure I understand the question. Is it illegal to take a payment for doing services? The FBI has not prosecuted him.”
Vance then lashed out at the anchor for repeatedly pressing him on whether Homan had accepted the money, causing Stephanopoulos to cut him off and end the interview.
“And here’s, George, why fewer and fewer people watch your show, and why you’re losing credibility,” Vance complained. “because you’re talking for now five minutes with the vice president of the United States about this story regarding Tom Homan, a story that I have read about, but I don’t even know the video that 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 cut in after more back-and-forth with his guest: “I asked you whether Tom Homan accepted $50,000 as was heard on an audiotape recorded by the FBI in September 2024, and you did not answer the question. Thank you for your time.”
ABC then cut to commercial over Vance’s protestations.
Homan told a NewsNation reporter that the allegations of taking a bribe were “bull****” when asked about the story in September, and indirectly denied the reporting to Fox News: “I did nothing criminal. I did nothing illegal.”
The White House press team has been much more acidic in its response to the reporting from ProPublica, Reuters, MSNBC and other outlets indicating that undercover agents handed Homan $50,000 cash, and videotaped it.
“Mr. Homan never took the $50,000 that you are referring to,” Karoline Leavitt told a reporter in September, adding that he “did absolutely nothing wrong, and even the president’s Department of Justice, even Kash Patel’s FBI looked into this just to make sure — they had a number of different prosecutors and FBI agents who looked into this — they found zero evidence of illegal activity or criminal wrongdoing.
“The White House and the president stand by Tom Homan 100 percent because he did absolutely nothing wrong,” she added.
Homan operated a consultancy firm after serving as acting ICE director during Trump’s first stint in the White House. According to a ProPublica investigation, at least half a dozen companies contracted a firm for which he worked as a consultant specifically due to a belief that Homan’s connection would grease the wheels and make obtaining contracts stemming from the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement push that much easier.
Multiple news outlets confirmed that Homan was investigated by the FBI towards the end of the Biden administration, and MSNBC first reported that Homan was recorded by FBI agents advising them that he could help their respective companies win those government contracts, before taking $50,000 in cash.
Democrats in Congress have vowed to investigate the issue after the Department of Justice dropped the investigation upon Trump taking office in January.
Under the second Trump presidency, the Justice Department has pivoted towards targeting a growing list of the president’s political enemies after Trump ordered his attorney general to begin proseuctions of Democrats in an accidentally-public Truth Social post.
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