Attorney General Pam Bondi’s tense Senate hearing Tuesday got particularly messy when she was asked questions about what happened to a $50,000 bag of cash border czar Tom Homan allegedly accepted from an undercover FBI agent last year.A Department of Justice investigation into Homan, now the nation’s top immigration official, began in the summer of 2024, but was closed after President Donald Trump took office in January.Homan was being probed for allegedly accepting the cash from FBI agents pretending to be business executives angling for government contracts in Trump’s second term, MSNBC first reported.At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, the attorney general was repeatedly asked about the sting operation, questions Bondi deflected by arguing she had not been confirmed to her post at the time the Homan inquiry was dropped.When Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) tried to find out exactly what happened to the $50,000, Bondi couldn’t answer the question.“As Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche recently stated, [Homan] was subjected to full investigation by the FBI and found no credible evidence of any wrongdoing,” Bondi said.“That wasn’t my question,” Whitehouse shot back. “What became of the $50,000 in cash the FBI delivered in a paper bag to Homan?”“I’d look at your facts,” Bondi replied before telling him that if he wanted to find out whether the FBI got the money back, he would have to ask FBI Director Kash Patel.Later in the session, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) wanted to know about White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying that Homan “never took the $50,000,” and that the reporter who asked the question last month should “get your facts straight.”“Was that true, what the White House press secretary said when she denied Homan took the money?” Schiff asked. “Did he take the money?”After a back and forth, and Schiff referencing a Fox News interview where Homan “didn’t answer the question whether he took the money,” Schiff asked Bondi the question a third time.Increasingly exasperated, Bondi replied: “Sen. Schiff, that happened prior to my confirmation. All I know is that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Patel said there...was...no...case. And Karoline Leavitt is one of the most trustworthy human beings I know.” (Watch the full exchange at the end of the story.)In another tense and bizarre encounter, Bondi was asked by Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) whether tape documenting the exchange of the $50,000 existed.“I don’t know the answer,” Bondi replied.“You do know the answer,” Welch insisted.“Don’t call me a liar,” Bondi fired back.“I didn’t call you a liar,” Welch clarified.“You just said I know the answer,” Bondi replied.In a statement last month, Patel and Blanche wrote, “This matter originated under the previous administration and was subjected to a full review by FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors. They found no credible evidence of any criminal wrongdoing.”“The Department’s resources must remain focused on real threats to the American people, not baseless investigations. As a result, the investigation has been closed,” they added.SCHIFF: Was it true when the White House press secretary denied that Homan took the money?BONDI: I was not in office, I was not confirmed, when that was handledSCHIFF: Did he take the money?BONDI: That happened prior to my confirmation pic.twitter.com/xoGwKL24Om— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 7, 2025