Scandal-ridden Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) is in panic mode, hanging on by a thread politically while facing decades in prison on corruption charges.
Like disgraced New York City Mayor Eric Adams and prison-bound former U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, Cuellar is attempting to embrace MAGA as a last-ditch effort to save his sorry self from the repercussions of his own actions. As Dr. Samuel Johnson famously wrote: “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel,” and a fair share of scoundrels are attempting to ‘MAGA-wash’ themselves in a desperate attempt to avoid culpability for their misdeeds.
When the witch hunt against President Trump was being waged by Congress, Cuellar shamefully voted in favor of impeachment and spread a voluminous list of quotes from RINO Republicans calling for Trump’s ouster. But now due to shameless self-interest, Cuellar is sidling up to President Trump hoping that it will save his political career and his freedom.
“I had the privilege of attending the inauguration of President Trump. It was a peaceful and memorable ceremony that reflects the enduring strength of our democracy and the importance of a peaceful transition of power,” Cuellar wrote in an X post smiling ear to ear while attending Trump’s inauguration.
“I wish the new administration nothing but the best as they take on the responsibility of leading our nation, and I remain committed to working toward a future of unity and opportunity for all,” Cuellar added.
Cuellar told Punchbowl News that he is seeking meetings with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and Trump border czar Tom Homan to discuss “immigration,” noting that he has known Homan “for many, many years.” Cuellar has also softened his stance on Trump’s tariffs, giving credit to the President for using tariff threats to stop illegal immigration and increase fentanyl interdictions at the border despite hoping Trump’s tariffs would not be fully implemented.
“The importer either eats it or passes it onto the consumer, and most of the time, they pass it onto the consumer. They add it to the consumer, if something costs a dollar, they pay a dollar 25 cents and that’s what we’re talking about, and the impact is not on Mexico, but it’s really on the American consumer that would buy this. So, I hope this can be worked out as soon as possible,” Cuellar said.
Cuellar’s political transformation is not akin to RFK Jr. or Tulsi Gabbard – two reasonable, principled Democrats who flipped to the Republican side because of Trump’s leadership and the systemic corruption and hypocrisy within their former party. Cuellar is obsequiously groveling to the Trump administration because he is caught dead to rights in a federal probe where he is accused of “bribery and acting as a foreign agent.”
According to the federal indictment unsealed in May of last year, Cuellar and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, received roughly $600,000 in bribes from an oil and gas company controlled by the brutal and genocidal Azerbaijani government as well as a Mexico City bank. They allegedly laundered the money through phony consulting contracts with a network of middlemen and shell companies while providing no actual work pursuant to the contracts.
For receiving the alleged bribes, Cuellar used his position in Congress to lobby on behalf of the Azerbaijani regime as they commit a new genocide against Armenian Christians while advising powerful officials in the U.S. Executive Branch to pursue policies to aid the Mexico City bank. The charges levied against Cuellar and his wife include bribery of a federal official, conspiracy to commit bribery of a federal official, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. These charges would result in well over 100 years in prison for the covetous couple if they were convicted, and it looks as if the shoe is about to drop in their case.
Political consultants Colin Strother, Cuellar’s former campaign manager, and Florencio “Lencho” Rendon pleaded guilty last year to helping Cuellar launder over $200,000 in bribery payments from the Mexico City bank. According to their plea deals, Strother met with Rendon at the request of Cuellar to “participate in a project to test and certify a fuel additive made by a Mexican company … so that it could be sold in the United States.” Rendon would pay Strother $11,000 per month for the project, $10,000 of which would be transferred to Cuellar’s wife.
Strother received a total of $261,000 from Rendon between March 2016 and June 2019, more than $236,000 of which was transferred to Cuellar’s wife, according to the court documents. Eventually, Strother concluded that the arrangement was “a sham” because nobody “did any legitimate work.” Strother “understood that the true purpose of the payments” was to “funnel money” to Cuellar so he could illegally circumvent revealing the disclosures in his public financial statements.
Before the public knew about the extent of Cuellar’s corruption, he won a narrow race against his upstart America First Republican Jay Furman in last year’s election. Furman has filed a complaint over abnormalities and irregularities that occurred during his electoral contest with Cuellar. The Trump base cannot be fooled by Rep. Henry Cuellar, a career politician cynically attempting to ‘MAGA-wash’ himself as his pay-to-play antics finally catch up with him. MAGA must demand a true Republican fighter like Furman to replace Cuellar after well-deserved justice is finally delivered to this scoundrel, good and hard.
