Democrats Are Ready to Investigate Corruption—With One Exception

Mother Jones illustration; om Williams/CQ-Roll Call/Getty Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily. Voters threw Republicans out of office on Tuesday by astounding margins, in large part due to disgust with Donald Trump’s extensively documented corruption. And Democrats have vowed to follow that mandate to crank up oversight and “hold those who are enriching themselves through corruption at taxpayers’ expense accountable,” as Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), who is expected to become House Majority Leader, said Wednesday. Democrats have outlined investigative plans that run the gamut from Trump family crypto schemes to funding for Trump’s vanity projects to his use of pardons to help political allies and campaign donors. But one place congressional Dems do not appear eager to look is within their own caucus. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) was charged by federal prosecutors in 2024 with taking a combined total of around $600,000 in bribes from an oil company controlled by the government of Azerbaijan and from a bank headquartered in Mexico City. In exchange, the Justice Department alleged, Cuellar promised to use his seat on the powerful Appropriations Committee to advance the oil-rich state’s interests in Congress, and to influence legislation to weaken regarding money laundering rules that the Mexican bank opposed. Prosecutors charged Cuellar’s wife, Imelda, with taking phony consulting payments that were actually Azerbaijani payoffs for her husband. Both Cuellars pleaded not guilty and continue to deny wrongdoing. Late last year, they got help from an unexpected ally. The president pardoned the couple, declaring, without evidence, that Cuellar had been targeted by the Biden administration and a “weaponized” justice system because he “bravely spoke out against Open Borders.” Cuellar is now positioned to chair a subcommittee on the same congressional committee he was accused of corruptly exploiting—with even more power than he had prior to his indictment. Cueller, who did not respond to inquiries from Mother Jones, said in a victory speech Tuesday that he was “tired of divisions” and eager to “govern.” But his presence in an influential congressional post could complicate Democrats’ efforts to home in on corruption by Trump and his allies. Trump’s motive for pardoning Cuellar and his wife came into focus after Cuellar, upon receiving his pardon, immediately said he would seek reelection—once again as a Democrat. Trump responded with fury. “Such a lack of LOYALTY,” Trump fumed in a Truth Social a few days later. Trump has said he did not reach any deal with Cuellar about the pardon, but he’s indicated he expected his move would help Republicans win the lawmaker’s seat in a south Texas district that Trump carried handily in 2024. “I never assumed he would be running for Office again, and certainly not as a Democrat,” Trump added a few weeks later. (Trump aides had reportedly courted Cuellar prior to the pardon, in outreach the congressman said related to immigration policy.) Last month, as Trump headed to Texas to support Cuellar’s opponent, the president went further. After singlehandedly preventing Cuellar from facing trial, Trump said the congressman “should be serving a longterm jail sentence with his wife in a top level penitentiary.” Cuellar overcame the president’s anger, and a district redrawn in 2025—at Trump’s insistence—to help elect a Republican. On Tuesday, Cuellar won an astonishing 66 percent of the vote. That’s a sign of the size of the Democratic wave in Texas, but also of some impressive political resilience. Running in what seemed to be a competitive district that Republicans were working to flip, Cuellar maintained support from his party. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who is set to become House Speaker in January, has not supported many Trump pardons. But last year, Jeffries praised the clemency Trump granted Cuellar, calling the federal case weak and the pardon “exactly the right outcome.” Jeffries’ office did not respond to an inquiry Wednesday. Democrats this year have seemed to work to avoid talking about Cuellar’s indictment or his pardon. Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Rep. David Min (D-Calif.)—who are jointly running what they call “a sweeping oversight effort” into Trump’s voluminous pardons and commutations—in May sent inquires to 17 people who received pardons from Trump “under circumstances that warrant further congressional scrutiny.” In August, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee issued a report on Trump pardons that listed around 80 “individuals granted executive clemency under suspicious circumstances.” The Democrats’ investigative materials do not mention Cuellar. Spokespersons for Welch, Min, and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.)—the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee—did not respond to questions about why that is. Cuellar is now positioned to gain more power than he had before his indictment. As the ranking member of the House Appropriations homeland security subcommittee, he is in position to become chairman of the panel, controlling funds for the Homeland Security Department. On Wednesday, Donald Sherman, president of the Coalition for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, urged Democrats to think twice before giving Cuellar a gavel. “The American people sent a clear message that combating corruption is a mandate for the next Congress,” Sherman said. “It would be a betrayal of the voters who championed anti-corruption to put Mr. Cuellar in any leadership position on any committee, especially one that oversees national security.” Worsening the headache for Democrats: Some of the crimes that Cuellar was accused of involved his committee role. Prosecutors charged Cuellar with acts including offering to “insert language favored by Azerbaijan into legislation and committee reports governing certain security and economic aid programs,” promising to influence “legislative measures relating to Azerbaijan’s conflict with neighboring Armenia,” and pledging “to deliver a pro-Azerbaijan speech” on the House floor. House Democrats’ predicament with Cuellar resembles one faced by their Senate colleagues in 2017, when a deadlocked jury resulted in a mistrial in a federal corruption case against Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey. Menendez successfully sought a return to the top Democratic spot on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, then, along with his wife, accepted bribes in the form of gold bars, mortgage payments, and Mercedes-Benz convertible in exchange for using his position to help the government of Egypt. He is currently serving an 11-year prison term following his 2024 conviction. Democrats will vote during the lame duck on chairmanships, including whether Cuellar will chair the subcommittee. Under Democratic Caucus rules, Cuellar was forced to give up his role on appropriations after his indictment, but allowed to regain it when Trump pardoned him. At that time, 17 of 27 members of the committee voted to restore Cuellar as ranking member of the subcommittee, the Texas Tribune reported. It is not clear whether Cueller will face opposition now. The House Ethics Committee has an open investigation into Cuellar. Its members would have to vote to renew the probe to continue it in the new session of Congress next year.