Pam Bondi walked into the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing ready to spar, but the blowup that followed made clear she was not prepared to answer the one question that mattered. Did federal investigators capture Tom Homan on tape taking $50,000 from undercover FBI agents, or not? When Senator Peter Welch pressed for a straight answer, the attorney general’s patience evaporated on live mic, snapping that she would not be called a liar as the room fell into an uneasy hush.
The flashpoint arrived when Welch, a Vermont Democrat, asked Bondi to confirm whether there was “a tape that has audio and video of the transfer of the $50,000.” Bondi tried to sidestep, telling him he would have to ask FBI Director Patel. Welch was not having it. “No, I’m talking to you,” he shot back. Bondi insisted she did not know the answer. Welch reminded her that she did, in fact, know. That is when Bondi’s voice spiked. “Don’t call me a liar!” she shouted.
Welch: Is there a tape that has audio and video of the transfer of the $50,000 to Homan?
Bondi: You would have to talk to Kash Patel about that.
Welch: I’m talking to you.
Bondi: I don’t have the answer.
Welch: You have the answer.
Bondi: Don’t call me a liar! pic.twitter.com/wMtPR9rqUw
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 7, 2025
From there, the exchange turned into a tug of war over responsibility and public interest. Welch asked the obvious follow up, if the cash changed hands, where did it go, and why does the public not know the outcome. Bondi leaned on a familiar refuge, asserting the matter was “resolved” before her confirmation as attorney general. That line only raised more eyebrows. If it was resolved, Welch asked, resolved how, and why is there no record indicating what happened to the $50,000 at the center of the sting. Bondi offered no documentation, only repetition. It was resolved before I arrived, she said. She would not know.
Welch pushed again, zeroing in on what you could almost feel the room thinking. A bag of FBI cash does not simply vanish into thin air. If Homan, the administration’s border czar, received the money as alleged, there should be a chain of custody, a report, an outcome, something that explains where it went and why the case is not in a courtroom. “He got to 50 grand,” Welch observed, blunt as a gavel. The line hung there for a beat.
Bondi challenged at any implication of wrongdoing by Homan, accusing Welch of trying to smear a public servant. “You’re not gonna sit here and slander Tom Homan,” she snapped, repositioning the clash as a partisan hit job rather than a request for basic accountability. But the deflection did not solve her problem. The attorney general of the United States was claiming she had no idea whether a high ranking official pocketed FBI cash, and if she did know, she was not going to say.
Bondi’s refusal to confirm or deny the existence of a tape, combined with her insistence that the matter was closed before she arrived, sounded less like transparency and more like a firewall. If the issue was truly resolved, most would expect her to say so plainly, and provide the paper trail. If it was not resolved, her admission raised a different alarm, that the nation’s top law enforcement officer is in the dark about an explosive allegation involving one of the administration’s most visible officials.
