Congress
Pardoned Democrat Henry Cuellar wants GOP to probe his prosecutors
Just-pardoned Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar is encouraging his Republican colleagues to investigate the prosecutors who charged him and his wife with bribery.
“I really think what they did was wrong,” Cuellar said in an interview Friday, adding that he has spoken to people in the House who are investigating prosecutors under former President Joe Biden. He said he plans to share information with them about his case.
Any such probe would represent a remarkable scrambling of partisan battle lines over the Justice Department. But it would be just the latest such jumble involving Cuellar, a self-proclaimed conservative Democrat who was an outlier in his party even before he faced corruption charges — and was suddenly pardoned Wednesday by President Donald Trump.
The investigation Cuellar referred to appears to be an ongoing probe of DOJ “weaponization” led by House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
Cuellar ran into Jordan shortly after Trump announced the pardon of Cuellar and his wife Wednesday, according to a person granted anonymity to describe the private conversation. Cuellar encouraged Jordan to request records from the Justice Department on his prosecution, and Jordan expressed openness to the idea, the person said.
“Based on what’s there, I definitely feel that there was misconduct by the prosecutors,” Cuellar said Friday. “So we’ll get more in details later on, but I certainly am convinced that this was weaponization.”
Jordan spokesperson Russell Dye declined to comment.
Cuellar and his wife were charged in 2024 with accepting $600,000 in bribes from foreign entities, including an oil and gas company owned by the government of Azerbaijan. Cuellar has said he and his wife were innocent of the charges.
In the Truth Social post announcing the pardon Wednesday, Trump blamed Biden for using “the FBI and DOJ to ‘take out’ a member of his own party” after Cuellar criticized Biden’s immigration policies.
Jordan has spearheaded investigations of Biden-era probes of Trump, leading a select subcommittee on the “Weaponization of the Federal Government.” He has recently ramped up the efforts, most recently subpoenaing former special counsel Jack Smith and accusing Smith’s team of “prosecutorial misconduct and constitutional abuses” in their investigations of Trump.
Cuellar reiterated in the interview that despite his criticism for his own party and his willingness to cooperate with a polarizing GOP probe, he has no plans to switch parties. He filed for reelection as a Democrat soon after he was pardoned Wednesday.
“I was a Democrat, and I’m still a Democrat,” he said.
Cuellar also said in the interview that neither he nor his family members had hired representatives to speak to the White House on his behalf — even as former lawyers and advisers to Trump have reported receiving significant sums to seek pardons on behalf of accused and convicted criminals.
Trump in Wednesday’s Truth Social post included a letter Cuellar’s daughters wrote to the president criticizing the prosecution as politically motivated and pleading for clemency.
Cuellar said he found out about the pardon Wednesday when asked by a reporter about Trump’s announcement.
“My daughters … saw their mom and dad go through a very difficult time and, on their own, they wrote a letter to the president,” he said. “Apparently the president read it and made a decision.”
Hailey Fuchs contributed to this report.
Rep. Max Miller issued a subpoena to his former father-in-law and fellow Ohio Republican, Sen. Bernie Moreno, in the latest escalation of a long-running family legal drama.
Pamela MacAdams, an attorney for Miller, reported to the Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court Monday that three subpoenas were served in Miller’s divorce case, according to court records. A person with knowledge of the subpoenas granted anonymity to comment on them said that two were sent to Moreno and his wife, Bridget.
Their daughter, Emily Moreno, was married to Miller, and the two remain embroiled in a nasty legal battle.
Spokespeople for Miller, Emily Moreno and Bernie Moreno did not immediately return requests for comment. TMZ first reported on the subpoenas.
Miller is seeking reelection in a competitive district, and his campaign has been marred by accusations of domestic abuse against Emily Moreno and their daughter. Miller has repeatedly denied the allegations and chose to remain in the race despite other Republican lawmakers pressuring him to withdraw his campaign.
The House Ethics Committee, which began an inquiry into Miller after Miller asked to be investigated, is currently in a preelection blackout period. During that period, which will continue through the midterms, the Ethics Committee doesn’t take any action against sitting members who could return next Congress.
Congress
Trump declares $1B canceled in ‘pocket rescission’ in another affront to Congress’ funding power
President Donald Trump informed congressional leaders Friday that he has unilaterally canceled almost $1 billion without Congress’ consent — employing a budget maneuver many lawmakers consider illegal.
In a move that will almost certainly set up an ugly government funding battle after the midterms, Trump has again claimed the power to execute a so-called “pocket rescission” to nix money Congress has already enacted. The money his administration will claw back is for for immigration services, support to foreign countries, education programs, health research efforts and assistance for businesses owned by minorities.
By law, the president is allowed to send Congress a request to rescind federal funding, then withhold that money for 45 days while lawmakers consider whether to approve, reject or ignore it. Trump administration officials also argue they have the power to cancel funding without any congressional action by sending Congress a rescission request with less than 45 days left in the fiscal year. The argument is that the money automatically gets canceled on Sept. 30, when funding lapses at the end of the fiscal year.
Last year, Trump canceled $4.9 billion in foreign aid.
The Senate’s top Republican appropriator, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, immediately blasted the move as illegal, saying in a statement Friday night that “any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law.”
“This move shows that OMB intentionally withheld these funds for months to execute this unlawful cancellation of appropriations that were approved on a bipartisan basis and signed into law,” Collins added, pledging to work with other lawmakers “to address these illegal actions.”
Collins and other appropriators have already been on high alert in recent days, pressing multiple agencies about funding officials have yet to spend ahead of the expiration date.
Democrats are finally catching on to how to talk to young male voters in the lead-up to the midterms, but the party can still up its game, one battleground senator and potential 2028er said Friday.
Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) has been one of his party’s most outspoken critics on its handling of outreach to young men, who swung right and helped deliver the White House and both chambers of Congress to Republicans in 2024.
The party is now “definitely moving in the right direction,” Gallego said Friday.
“Like back in the day, I was like the only one,” putting out positions on men, Gallego said at a Washington event on young American men. “Now, like, it seems like everyone every week is coming out with a new position, new idea, which is great.”
Gallego has criticized Democrat’s failure to highlight mens’ struggles and their tendency to over-police mens’ ideas. But there are signs the political winds have shifted in his party’s favor.
A new Cygnal poll released with the event of men ages 18-30 who say they’re the most determined to vote revealed Democrats’ generic ballot lead over Republicans at 57%-40%, Blue Light News reported. The poll also said nearly 40 percent of respondents said they feel their lives are off track.
“We need to take the opportunity to invest in that portion of this country, to say that we care about them and actually try to change the trajectory of what’s happening with men in this country,” Gallego said at the symposium.
Still, the path for specific legislation targeting the needs of this demographic faces an incredibly tight calendar this Congress and is uncertain in the political landscape of next year.
A proposal from Gallego and Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) to establish a men’s health office within the Department of Health and Human Services, for example, has not advanced. Nor has bipartisan legislation from Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who also spoke at the event, targeting education outcomes, college investment transparency and dyslexic student support.
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