CNN’s Dana Bash Repeatedly Pushes Trump’s Border Czar On Whether He Set Up a Quid Pro Quo Between DOJ and Eric Adams

CNN’s Dana Bash pressed Trump administration border czar Tom Homan Sunday as to whether the Justice Department offered to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams in exchange for his help with immigration.

Bash told Homan she knew that he was not part of the DOJ. But she noted dropping the charges was so controversial seven people at the DOJ resigned over the directive. The CNN anchor repeatedly pressed Homan about a shift in how Adams viewed working with immigration authorities before after prosecutors dropped the charges without prejudice – meaning they could be refiled in the future.

On Sunday’s State of the Union, Bash said to Homan:

I just want to ask directly. You met on Thursday with the New York mayor and he announced then that he would give Ice agents access to the prison on Rikers Island. You called that a game-changer. A few days before Adams made that announcement, the Justice Department instructed prosecutors to drop federal corruption charges against him. It sounds like the DOJ dropped the case against Adams, and in exchange, he let you into Rikers. Is that what happened?

Homan denied the series of events and said any inference he took advantage of Adams being vulnerable to jail time was “ridiculous.”

“We talked about how we can collaborate on public safety threats and finding the missing children that were that can be found after they released the sponsors,” Homan said of a meeting he had with Adams in December of last year. “So, I don’t have anything to do with it.”

Bash reminded Homan he came away from his meeting with Adams last year feeling “really unsatisfied.”

Homan said he would not have classified his feelings as “unsatisfied” after his first talk with Adams. As far as a potential quid pro quo between the DOJ and the mayor, he told Bash, “It’s kind of out of my lane.”

She asked, “What changed between then and now, other than the Department of Justice dropping the case against Adams?”

The pair went back and forth two more times before Bash concluded, “I mean, that’s a pretty direct message, sir, that Adam needs to play ball when it comes to immigration.”

Watch above via CNN.