Texas

Can indicted South Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar survive corruption charges?

Published

2 years ago

May 18, 2024

Can indicted South Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar survive corruption charges?

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar insists he has no intention of stepping down since being indicted on federal charges accusing him of taking nearly $600,000 in bribes.

“No, no, no, no, no,” Cuellar told reporters asking if he was contemplating resignation after the indictment was announced May 3. “Everybody’s innocent until proven otherwise and we are going to continue doing our job.”

He stood by that position this week after it was revealed federal prosecutors have secured guilty pleas from three people in connection with the case against him. He and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, are accused of participating in schemes involving bribery, illegal foreign influence and money laundering. Cuellar denies the allegations.

The federal indictment alleges the Democrat from Laredo accepted almost $600,000 in bribes to advance the interests of the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan and a bank in Mexico.

The most serious charges carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison.

Former top Cuellar aide Colin Strother and political consultant Florencio Rendon are cooperating with the federal investigation, according to plea agreements filed in March.

Strother’s attorney declined comment. Rendon’s attorney said he could not immediately comment.

The Associated Press reported this week that a third person pleaded guilty May 1 in Houston federal court to acting as an agent for Azerbaijan without registering with federal officials.

CNN confronted Cuellar on Capitol Hill this week about the guilty pleas, but the Texan said he isn’t going anywhere.

“We’re not afraid of the truth,” said Cuellar, who is on the November ballot as he seeks an 11th two-year term.

Other politicians have won reelection with pending indictments, including Ken Paxton, Texas’ Republican attorney general.

Two Republicans, Jay Furman and Lazaro Garza Jr., are competing in a May 28 runoff to determine who will face Cuellar in November.

It is unclear how much Republicans will spend on the race, having seen challengers fall short in previous bids against the incumbent.

Cuellar faced a close call in the 2022 Democratic primary but won by 13.3 percentage points that November.

After the indictment was unsealed, the National Republican Congressional Committee pounced, calling for Cuellar’s fellow Democrats to push for his resignation. U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., did so, but he’s a striking exception.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Thursday he had not rescinded his endorsement of Cuellar and he wanted to give the Texan time and space to “work out his legal situation” without wading into politics.

“I support Henry Cuellar’s right to a trial by jury,” Jeffries said. “He is innocent until proven guilty.”

The George Santos precedent

The NRCC accused Democrats of hypocrisy for pressing to oust U.S. Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., over his own criminal charges.

U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, said it’s a sign of a healthy democracy when those in power are held to account. He pointed to an initial failed vote to kick out Santos, which Allred opposed, citing a lack of due process.

Allred joined others in voting for Santos’ successful expulsion on a subsequent vote, after the release of a scathing report by the Ethics Committee that cited “overwhelming evidence” Santos used campaign funds for personal purposes and committed other crimes.

There has been no such report on Cuellar.

“Due process still has to be observed,” Allred said.

U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, noted Cuellar said he sought and received legal opinions from the Ethics Committee before taking actions cited in the indictment.

“As a criminal defense attorney, I always go with the presumption of innocence,” she said. “So I’m hoping for the best.”

Republicans not going after Cuellar

Many Republicans in Congress, including those from Texas, also are inclined to let the legal process play out for Cuellar, an occasional political ally.

After news of the indictment broke, several Texas Republicans cited Cuellar’s record of working on bipartisan measures and his penchant for breaking with his party over his opposition to abortion rights, support for tougher border security measures and other issues.

“I know Henry to be a really good man, and for whatever he’s going through, I feel sorry for him,” said U.S. Rep. Roger Williams, R-Willow Park. “He’s well-liked. He’s a good man and he thinks a lot like conservatives do on certain issues.”

Williams said he has been Cuellar’s friend for many years and remains one, noting that he served as Texas secretary of state after Cuellar held the position.

U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Amarillo, also called the Democrat a friend.

“I know they’ve been coming after him for a while,” Jackson said. “They come after him, in part, because he does on occasion vote with us.”

U.S. Rep. August Pfluger, R-San Angelo, called Cuellar a “great member to work with” on issues from energy to agriculture.

Across the Capitol, both Republican U.S. senators from Texas spoke positively about working with Cuellar on various issues.

Sen. Ted Cruz said the allegations are “serious” and “concerning,” but he also highlighted issues of agreement, such as streamlining approval of new U.S.-Mexico bridges across the Rio Grande and designating a new interstate corridor running from Laredo through West Texas.

“He has been a strong partner fighting for jobs in Texas, and together we’ve gotten a lot accomplished for the state,” Cruz said.

Cruz, who wrote a book accusing Democrats of “weaponizing” the justice system, said it’s fair to ask whether the case against Cuellar is politically motivated.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said he’s enjoyed working with Cuellar and feels for him, but the matter is up to the courts.

“Henry has always been a bipartisan individual and he’s one of the very few pro-life [Democratic] House members and frankly, you know, you can see where he may be in disfavor by the current administration,” Cornyn said.

Source link

Texas

Arizona State transfer RB Raleek Brown commits to Texas

Published

1 hour ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Arizona State transfer RB Raleek Brown commits to Texas

Recruiting a running back out of the NCAA transfer portal wasn’t clean and simple after the winter window opened last week, but the Texas Longhorns were able to land a huge commitment from Arizona State transfer Raleek Brown on Thursday.

The 5’9, 196-pounder has one season of eligibility remaining.

Texas offered Brown out of Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana (Calif.) when he was a top-100 prospect in the 2022 recruiting class. A consensus four-star prospect ranked as the No. 3 running back nationally in the 247Sports Composite rankings, Brown committed to home-state USC without taking any other official visits.

Brown’s career with the Trojans didn’t go as planned, however — after flashing as a freshman with 227 yards on 42 carries (5.4 avg) with three touchdowns and 16 receptions for 175 yards (10.97 avg) and three touchdowns, Brown moved to wide receiver as a sophomore and only appeared in two games, recording three catches for 16 yards and a touchdown.

Wanting to play running back again, Brown transferred to Arizona State in 2024, but was limited by a hamstring injury to 48 yards of total offense.

In 2025, though, Brown finally had his breakout season with 186 carries for 1,141 yards and four touchdowns, adding 34 receptions for 239 yards and two touchdowns. Brown forced 53 missed tackles last season, 67 percent of the total missed tackles forced by Texas running backs, and more than half of his rushing yardage came after contact.

Brown ran a sub 4.5 40-yard dash and sub-11 100-meter dash in high school and flashed that explosiveness with runs of 75 yards and 88 yards in 2025, so Brown brings the speed that the Longhorns need with 31 yards over 10 yards, as well as proven route-running and pass-catching ability.

At Arizona State, the scheme leaned towards gap runs, but Brown has the skill set to be an excellent outsize zone back if Texas head coach Steve Sarksian decides that he wants to major in that scheme once again.

With one running back secured from the portal, the question becomes whether Sarkisian and new running backs coach Jabbar Juluke want to add a big-bodied back to the roster or are comfortable with rising redshirt sophomore Christian Clark and incoming freshman Derrek Cooper handling that role.

Source link

Texas

Texas leaders react to fatal ICE shooting in Minneapolis

Published

13 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Texas leaders react to fatal ICE shooting in Minneapolis

article

Texas lawmakers are lighting up social media with opinions about the fatal shooting of a woman in a car in Minneapolis by an ICE officer on Wednesday morning.

Reports from officers differ drastically from those of uninvolved eyewitnesses — the official DHS stance is self-defense against a “domestic terrorist,” while bystanders tell a story of an innocent woman trying to leave peacefully.

The political internet arena Texas is divided along party lines. Republicans generally condemn Minnesota leaders’ reactions to the shooting, while Democrats are calling for ICE to be investigated for the possible murder of a civilian by an anonymous officer.

Texas Republicans react

Among the most vocal of the Texas GOP members after Wednesday’s shooting, U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Houston) was quick to question Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s dismay at the incident. Hunt posted the following to X, formerly Twitter:

“We’ve hit a breaking point in this country when an ICE officer is rammed by a lunatic in an SUV and the Mayor of Minneapolis responds not with condemnation, but by telling federal law enforcement to “get the f*ck out!”

UNITED STATES – JANUARY 22: Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, leaves a meeting of the House Republican Conference at the Capitol Hill Club on Wednesday, January 22, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Hunt, currently in the running for U.S. Senate, later reposted a Fox News video of Gov. Tim Walz’ reaction. Hunt compared Walz to Jefferson Davis before posting a full statement later in the evening that reads, in part, as follows:

“The radical left isn’t turning the temperature down, they’re cranking it to 450 degrees. When leaders normalize this kind of rhetoric, the outcome isn’t hypothetical. It’s dangerous. It’s reckless. And it puts lives at risk. If violence follows, responsibility doesn’t belong to the officers enforcing the law, it belongs to the politicians who lit the fuse.”

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz was more to the point with his criticism of Minnesota leaders, reposting a different video of Walz and referencing the recent fraud scandal within the state.

Walz in the video said Minnesota is “at war with the federal government.” Cruz replied, “Is that why y’all stole $9 billion?”

Texas Democrats react

The other side:

State Rep. James Talarico (D-Austin), another candidate for the same U.S. Senate seat as Hunt, rang in from the other side of the aisle.

“At our town hall last night, I called for a full investigation into ICE,” Talarico said in his post on X. “Today, an ICE agent shot and killed a civilian. We should haul these masked men before Congress so the world can see their faces.”

State Representative James Talarico, a Democrat from Texas and US Senate candidate, during a campaign event in Houston, Texas, US, on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025. Talarico is jumping into the Democratic primary for US Senate in Texas, taking on a former

Former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, yet another Senate hopeful, also expressed his ire for the actions in Minneapolis.

“As a civil rights attorney, I’m outraged by today’s ICE shooting in Minnesota that took a woman’s life,” Allred said on X. “No family should lose a loved one this way. No community should live in this fear. ICE has become a rogue agency — operating recklessly, terrorizing communities, and now taking lives. To every community terrorized by these tactics: I see you. I stand with you. And I won’t stop fighting until you’re safe.”

Minneapolis fatal ICE shooting

The backstory:

An ICE agent fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday morning.

Federal officials are claiming the agent acted in self-defense, but Minnesota leaders disagree. The shooting happened around 9:30 a.m. in the area of East 34th Street and Portland Avenue. The woman died at the hospital.

Witnesses told FOX Local that a woman got into a red vehicle and there was one ICE agent on either side of the vehicle trying to get in, and a third ICE agent came and tried to yank on the driver’s side door. One of the agents on the driver’s side door backed away, and then opened fire, shooting three times through the driver’s side window, witnesses said. One witness said the vehicle wasn’t moving toward the agents. However, federal officials said ICE officers were “conducting targeted operations” when “rioters” blocked officers. One of the “rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them.”

Officials said an ICE officer who was “fearing for his life” fired “defensive shots” to save himself and his officers, killing the woman.

A video of the shooting shows a red Honda Pilot blocking the roadway as an ICE squad approaches. When agents approach the vehicle, the Pilot attempts to drive away, moving towards an agent. When that happens, the agent fires three shots at the driver. Police say the driver was struck in the head. The agent appears to mostly avoid the vehicle as it speeds past and ends up crashing into a parked vehicle.

The Source: Information in this report comes from public statements made by Texas lawmakers on social media. Background comes from FOX 9 coverage in Minneapolis.

Texas PoliticsU.S.Texas

Source link

Texas

Texas investigations into Charlie Kirk posts spark free-speech lawsuit

Published

1 day ago

January 7, 2026

Press Room

Texas investigations into Charlie Kirk posts spark free-speech lawsuit

A Texas teachers union has sued the state over what it said was a trampling of educators’ free speech rights when hundreds came under investigation for their comments after the killing of Charlie Kirk.

The Texas branch of the American Federation of Teachers filed the federal lawsuit against the Texas Education Agency and its commissioner Mike Morath on Jan. 6, the union said. The suit claims investigations into at least 350 teachers after Kirk’s death were “unlawful” and that a letter issued by Morath to superintendents around the state targeting “reprehensible and inappropriate content on social media” prompted punishment and retaliation against teachers.

Kirk, 31, was fatally shot on Sept. 10, 2025, while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. The cofounder of Turning Point USA, a conservative youth-focused organization, Kirk was a close ally of President Donald Trump. Shooting suspect Tyler Robinson has been charged with his murder.

After Kirk’s death, a wave of backlash came in response to online posts condemning his views or otherwise criticizing him. Right-leaning public figures and prominent social media accounts called for firings of people whose posts they deemed inappropriate.

Morath’s letter on Sept. 12 directed superintendents to report “inappropriate conduct being shared” to the Texas Education Agency’s Educator Investigations Division, which investigates teachers for allegations of misconduct, the Texas AFT said in its suit, which was reviewed by USA TODAY. The union said teachers were investigated not for speech made in classrooms, but for posts made on their personal, often private social media pages.

“In the months since, the consequences for our members have run the gamut from written reprimands and administrative leave to doxxing and termination from their jobs,” AFT Vice President and Texas Chapter President Zeph Capo said at a news conference.

The Texas Education Agency didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Jan. 7.

Lawsuit claims teachers were disciplined for exercising free speech

The lawsuit filed by the Texas AFT claims that teachers in public schools have a constitutionally protected right to free speech, and that their speech in their personal capacity, such as on social media, is protected. The suit claims that teachers’ rights were violated when they were investigated or faced disciplinary action for their posts about Kirk. It also alleges that the policy to report teachers for “inappropriate” content was unfairly vague.

“These teachers were disciplined solely for their speech, without any regard to whether the posts disrupted school operations in any way,” the lawsuit reads.

Teachers whose cases are mentioned in the lawsuit were kept anonymous, Capo said, to protect them from further harassment. Many teachers are fearful to express any more opinions, effectively silencing their speech, he said.

One of the teachers, who made a post described in the lawsuit as one that “simply raised questions about the circumstances of Mr. Kirk’s death and did not promote violence in any way,” was shared by a lawmaker who used it as part of an election campaign and called for the teacher’s dismissal. The high school English teacher, who has taught for 27 years, was placed on administrative leave and later fired. She settled a wrongful termination claim with the school district, the lawsuit said.

Another teacher of 16 years and a military veteran who previously won “Teacher of the Year” in his school district and made posts criticizing Kirk for his views on Black Americans is under an ongoing investigation by the state agency, the lawsuit said.

“We denounced Charlie Kirk’s assassination, we denounced violence after Uvalde. We denounce violence,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “What happened in the next few days (after Kirk’s killing), wasn’t about violence or denouncing violence, it was about muzzling the expression of constitutionally protected nonviolent speech.”

Dozens lost jobs over posts about Kirk

In the wake of Kirk’s death in September, USA TODAY counted dozens of examples of people who lost their jobs, were suspended or investigated over posts or comments they made about the conservative podcaster, including educators, lawyers, doctors, first responders and others.

They include a dean at Middle Tennessee State, Laura Sosh-Lightsy, who was fired for a social media post saying she had “zero sympathy” for Kirk; a Marine who called Kirk a “racist man” who was “popped”; and Jimmy Kimmel, whose ABC show was temporarily suspended after he made comments about Kirk.

Some educators who lost their jobs filed lawsuits alleging their free speech rights were violated. A teacher in Iowa who compared Kirk to a Nazi; a South Carolina teacher’s assistant who posted a Kirk quote and said she disagreed with him but called the death a “tragedy”; and an employee of an Indiana university who said Kirk’s death was wrong and condemned some of his beliefs all filed suits on free speech, according to reporting from the USA TODAY Network. Each case kicked up a flurry of social media outrage and calls for the educators’ firings.

In Tennessee, a tenured theater professor at Austin Peay State University was reinstated after originally being fired for comments he made online after Kirk’s killing, the Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network, recently reported.

Source link