‘Happy to Help, Sir’: Jake Tapper Posts Court Records After Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino Dares Him To Name A Lie

CNN anchor Jake Tapper responded with court documents after Border Patrol Commander-at-large Gregory Bovino publicly challenged him to identify an alleged lie.

The exchange followed the Border Patrol shooting death of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Bovino drew criticism for his account of the incident on CNN, where he said, "The victims are the Border Patrol agents. I’m not blaming the Border Patrol agents. The suspect put himself in that situation."

Tapper invoked an unrelated November court opinion that questioned Bovino’s credibility in a Chicago case and retweeted the judge’s summary that, "Bovino admitted in his deposition that he lied multiple times." Bovino then dared Tapper on social media to identify the supposed falsehood, writing, "Then identify the lie, Jake. No one can seem to find this mysterious ‘lie.’"

Tapper replied, "Happy to help, sir," and began posting excerpts from court records. The documents—part of a November 20, 2025 opinion by Judge Sara Ellis—state that Bovino "admitted in his deposition that he lied multiple times about the events that occurred in Little Village that prompted him to throw tear gas at protesters."

“Bovino and DHS have represented that a rock hit Bovino in the helmet before he threw tear gas. …On the first day [of his deposition] Bovino admitted that he was not hit with a rock until after he had deployed tear gas.”

Tapper continued the thread with 11 additional posts laying out specific contradictions between Bovino’s earlier public accounts and his deposition testimony. In his final post, Tapper linked to the source material and identified the full opinion as a 233-page decision by Judge Ellis, offering to provide further documentation on request.

Beyond his online spat with Tapper, Bovino used social media that day to criticize public figures including Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), and commentator Bill Kristol. The confrontation has renewed attention on both Bovino’s public statements about the Minneapolis shooting and the earlier Chicago incident referenced in the court opinion.

Why it matters: The case highlights a rare instance in which on-air commentary was directly challenged with judicial records, raising questions about the consistency of a senior law-enforcement official’s public statements and sworn testimony.