Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche took Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) to the proverbial woodshed during a congressional hearing after he accused him of bribing President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan, essentially calling the Rhode Island Democrat a liar right to his face. A video clip of the incident has resurfaced on social media and is going viral for a second time.
“Why won’t you tell us what became of the $50,000 in confidential money that the FBI reported that it gave to Tom Homan?” Whitehouse asks Blanche at the start of the clip. “I’m not aware of what you’re speaking about. To the extent that there have been public reporting about an investigation, I know nothing about it,” Blanche answers.
Whitehouse is not willing to accept the answer that Blanche gives, so he continues to press the matter, following up his initial question by saying, “Well, the public reporting is that the FBI reported giving $50,000 in the nature of a bribe to Tom Homan, and there’s been no report of what became of that $50,000. Will you answer that question? Not now, but will you answer that question? Because we’ve been asking for a long time now. Your department certainly knows what’s happening.”
“I’m not aware that that’s true,” Blanche says. Whitehouse then goes into a lengthy breakdown of questions that he says have gone unanswered about the alleged money paid to Homan, stating that the few answers they have received have been less than helpful or informative. “Well, take a look at it, and it’s publicly reported, and the FBI reported it, and you should answer the question,” the senator tells Blanche.
“Here’s a list of unanswered questions that I have just asked. I don’t know how it is that the chairman thinks that you’ve cooperated with the committee or that you’ve been transparent with the committee. That is not my experience. You said earlier that you welcome our questions. Great, answer our questions,” he says to Blanche during the hearing. “Where we have had answers, Mr. Blanche, they have not been informative; they have been blow-offs.”
Homan has denied allegations that he accepted a bribe of $50,000 on numerous occasions, dating back as early as October 2025. According to a report from Politico, Homan made an appearance at that time on NewsNation where he stated emphatically, “I didn’t take $50,000 from anybody.” Reports published previously alleged that the FBI recorded Homan taking $50,000 in cash from agents who posed as business executives looking to score government contracts in an undercover operation.
The White House stated that federal authorities conducted an investigation into the matter, but said no “credible evidence” of criminal wrongdoing by Homan was discovered, repeatedly stating that the whole matter was politically motivated. Homan himself called the reporting a “hit piece,” going on to add, “I don’t care what people think about me and never have.” Vice President JD Vance also insisted that Homan never took a bribe.
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Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video