'Lying problem?' Trump's border czar throws Kristi Noem under the bus on CNN
February 20, 2026
CNN's Sara Sidner pressed President Donald Trump's "border czar" to explain whether the Department of Homeland Security had an agency-wide "lying problem."
The president dispatched border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota last month following the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by immigration agents, and the "CNN News Central" host challenged him on a determination by ICE acting director Todd Lyons that two federal officers appear to have lied about a confrontation that ended with one of them shooting a Venezuelan immigrant in the leg.
"What should happen to agents if theylie about what they have doneunder oath?" Sidnder asked.
"Well, first of all, they'llbe investigated by internalaffairs and held accountable forany, you know, anything they didoutside of policy," Homan said. "But I talkedto the U.S. attorney personallyon this. They're beinginvestigated and they may becharged with a crime if theevidence shows that they liedunder oath and and made up thiswhole incident,they'll be held accountable. Iknow the U.S. attorney, I talkedto the U.S. attorney and they're allover this."
Sidner then asked if those agents should be fired and charged with a crime if prosecutors determined they had lied.
"If they committed a crime,then they need to be heldaccountable," Homan replied.
A federal judge found in November that U.S. Border Patrol commander-at-large Greg Bovino had lied in a deposition about being hit in the head with a rock before deploying tear gas against protesters in the Chicago area, and Sidner asked whether he should be fired or charged for lying under oath.
"If a judgedeclared he lied under oath, heneeds to be investigated, andthat's up to CBP," Homan said. "What peopleneed to understand CBP and ICEdo not report to me. They reportto Kristi Noem, and she'll holdthese officers responsible."
Noem claimed that Alex Pretti had brandished a gun before Border Patrol officers shot and killed him, and she accused the slain nurse of being a domestic terrorist, but Sidner said video evidence clearly contradicted her claims about his killing.
"Does youragency, does the entire agencyhave a lying problem?" Sidner asked.
"Well look, I'm not going tocomment on investigation itself," Homan said. "I said from day one, in any ofthese shootings, that I would notcomment on them until theinvestigation is finished by theFBI, internal affairs. That'sthe way it should be. Weshouldn't prejudge it and, look,I don't know what informationthe secretary had when she madethose statements. I can tell youI didn't make those statements.I would never you know, I don'twant influence investigation. Ihave an opinion, but I won'tshare my opinion because I wanta thorough investigation, and ifpeople violated the law, ifpeople violated policy, again,they need to be heldaccountable."
"Including Greg Bovino?" Sidner asked. "Do youknow if there is aninvestigation into his lying ina deposition, according to ajudge?"
"Well, that would be aquestion for the secretary," Homan replied. "Idon't know."
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