Another domino falls in Cuellar case
GOP lawmakers head to New York to defend Trump
Also in today’s edition of ‘Regular Order’ for May 14, 2024:
House ready to approve aviation policy bill.
Republicans roll out draft defense policy plan.
A look back at how Ronald Reagan dealt with Israel.
CUELLAR. The future is even darker for indicted Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX). Ten days after the feds announced bribery and corruption charges against the Texas Democrat, court records showed that a third person with ties to him had pleaded guilty in federal court. This time, it’s a Houston woman who once helped sponsor a Congressional trip to Azerbaijan - a country said to be involved in a bribery scheme tied to Cuellar.
UNSEALED. In court papers, Irada Akhoundova - who runs a sister city group in Houston with ties to Azerbaijan - acknowledged she failed to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Cuellar wasn’t mentioned directly in her court papers - but Akhoundova’s case is linked to two others who have also pleaded guilty to helping Cuellar.
BAKU. The Cuellar indictment alleges that the Texas Democrat and his wife received $360,000 in payments which were basically funneled from the government of Azerbaijan. Now living in Houston, Akhoundova was ordered to surrender her passports - plural.
TIMING. Akhoundova's guilty plea was accepted on May 1. Cuellar was formally indicted on May 3. She joins two others who have already submitted guilty pleas, admitting they helped the Texas Congressman launder payments from overseas entities. Things don’t look very good right now for Cuellar.
LONE STAR. Cuellar said nothing about the latest developments in his case. His bribery trial is currently slated to begin in July.
MENENDEZ. Jury selection will continue for a second day in New York for Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), as prosecutors try to get his bribery and corruption trial started. One would assume that Menendez will be missing most Senate votes in coming weeks, as he deals with 16 felony charges lodged against him by the feds.
GARDEN STATE. With Menendez not running for reelection - at least, not right now - three Democrats squared off in a debate last night in the race to replace him. Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ) is the prohibitive favorite to win the June 4 primary.
SENATE. Donald Trump has been talking about winning New Jersey in November - something which is highly unlikely. Republicans don’t really have much of a chance in this Senate race in November, either.
PILGRIMAGE. Just about every day at Donald Trump's trial in New York, there are now GOP lawmakers from Congress on hand to watch the proceedings, lend their moral support, and then engage in some media spin during the breaks. On Monday, that team included Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), and Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL).
COHEN. Vance led the charge against the testimony of Michael Cohen, Trump's former chief fixer. "This guy is a convicted felon," said Vance. "Does any reasonably sensible person believe anything that Michael Cohen says? I don't think they should."
SECRETARIAT. Malliotakis - a local New York lawmaker - used her time at the stakeout microphones to attack city prosecutor Alvin Bragg. "Here you have a made up charge for something that's not even in his jurisdiction," said Malliotakis, who called the case a 'sham.'
YELLOWHAMMER. Tuberville was not impressed by the events he witnessed, bemoaning what he felt like was a lack of respect for the defendant. "First of all, I'm disappointed in the courtroom, I'm hearing, 'Mr. Trump, Mr. Trump,'" said Tuberville. "He is former President Trump."
ATTRIBUTION. Tuberville’s complaint reminds me of how some conservative talk radio listeners would complain when I did not say ‘President Trump’ every single time on the radio. Referring to him on a second or third reference as ‘the President’ or ‘Mr. Trump’ was considered a verbal slight. I don’t understand that kind of worship.
AVIATION POLICY. The House is expected to vote overwhelmingly today to give final approval to a sweeping aviation policy bill. This will be yet another measure which gets passed under the special expedited ‘suspension of the rules’ process, requiring a two-thirds supermajority. The Senate okayed the FAA bill 88-4 last week.
RESULTS. For all of the obvious dysfunction and legislative troubles which have dogged House Republicans and this Congress, this airline bill is definitely a legislative success story. Key lawmakers spent months working out a deal behind the scenes for a package which weighs in at 1,083 pages
REFUNDS. The bill not only deals with FAA oversight and aviation safety, but also contains some notable consumer provisions. It includes a plan which allows travelers to get an automatic refund - not just a voucher - if their flight is canceled.
LAST MINUTE. What was quite interesting was how that happened. Airline lobbyists were able to get a provision which put some hurdles in the way of those ticket refunds - requiring travelers to request the refund in writing. But an uproar led to that being yanked out of the final bill.
ACTION. Again - for all of the deserved criticism of this Congress for being unable to get things done, this 5-year reauthorization bill for the FAA shows lawmakers can still compromise and find common ground - if they really want to do that.
NDAA. House Republicans on Monday rolled out their initial plans for one of the few bills which has any chance of getting approved the rest of this election year - a major Pentagon policy bill known as the NDAA, the National Defense Authorization Act. (Or if you've been around forever like me, you still call it DOD Authorization.)
MARKUP. The House Armed Services Committee is scheduled to start work on this package on May 22. This bill 'authorizes' spending and makes a host of military policy decisions. It has been approved 63 straight years by the Congress - there is no other bill which can come close to that.
FY 2025. This year's NDAA is going to have a big focus on improving 'quality of life' for active-duty servicemembers. The plan includes a 15 percent pay raise which is targeted to those on the bottom of the pay scale.
BUDGET. Giving better pay and benefits to those enlisting in the military only makes sense - you can attract more people for the future. But, it also costs a lot of money, as the yearly military budget creeps ever closer to $900 billion.
DEFICIT. Just a reminder - you could cut out absolutely everything in the discretionary budget outside of the military and still run a yearly budget deficit of over $1 trillion.
SURPLUS. Speaking of the deficit, April was a pretty good month overall for Uncle Sam, as the feds ran a $210 billion surplus thanks to higher tax revenues coming into the Treasury. That was the best month since April 2022, when the feds had a $308 billion surplus.
NUMBERS. Uncle Sam brought in $776.2 billion in tax revenue last month, while spending $566.7 billion. Revenues were up $140 billion from the same month a year ago, while spending was up $104 billion. (Higher tax revenues plus lower spending would be a much better combination.)
YEAR TO YEAR. So far in Fiscal Year 2024, revenues are up by $277.6 billion. That's good. But spending is up by $437.2 billion. That's not good. The federal deficit so far in FY 2024 is $855.1 billion. Last year it was nearly $1.7 trillion. There's still five months to go in the fiscal year.
ISRAEL. Republicans on Monday continued to attack President Biden for threatening to withhold weapons shipments to Israel, in a dispute over how far the Israeli government is willing to push into Gaza. The latest broadside came in a letter from over 100 House members which was sent to the White House.
COMPLAINT. "This move is part of a pattern of your administration hindering arms sales to our allies without sufficient explanation," the group wrote. Some Republicans have even threatened to force a vote to impeach President Biden, denouncing him for questioning Israeli intentions and motives.
BIPARTISAN. Republicans cast the letter as bipartisan - but there was only one Democrat who signed on, Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME).
UNPRECEDENTED. All the talk about this being an unprecedented situation made me look into it - and of course it's not the first time something like this has happened. Here is a story from 1982 when President Reagan had halted arms shipments to Israel, mad about their military actions. (It sounds much like today.)
DIARY. This is from Reagan's daily diary, in which he recounts calling Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on August 12, 1982, after the Israeli military attacked targets in Lebanon. Reagan not only demands Israel change its ways - but threatens U.S.-Israeli relations in general:
“I was angry. I told him (Begin) it had to stop or our entire future relationship was endangered. I used the word holocaust deliberately & said the symbol of his war was becoming a picture of a 7 month old baby with it’s arms blown off. He told me he had ordered the bombing stopped—I asked about the artillery fire. He claimed the P.L.O. had started that & Israeli forces had taken casualties. End of call. Twenty mins. later he called to tell me he’d ordered an end to the barrage and plead for our continued friendship.”
TODAY. Can you imagine the nuclear GOP political meltdown which would occur right now if a story came out that President Biden had threatened ‘our entire future relationship’ in a phone call with Prime Minister Netanyahu?
PRIMARIES. Voters in three states go to the polls today to vote in primaries for Congress and President. There are a number of interesting story lines which could surface tonight as the votes roll in from Maryland, West Virginia, and Nebraska.
MARYLAND. The race which will get most of the attention inside the Beltway is the Democratic primary for Senate in Maryland. Rep. David Trone (D-MD) had long been the favorite - but there has been a surge for Angela Alsobrooks, who heads Prince George's County just outside D.C.
CHANGE. Along with an open Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), three of Maryland's eight seats in the U.S. House have no incumbent running this year. One candidate for an open House seat is former U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn. He's raised $4.5 million.
WEST VIRGINIA. Rep. Carole Miller (R-WV) is facing a spirited challenge from former state delegate Derrick Evans - who was sent to prison for 3 months for crimes committed on Jan. 6.
PRESIDENT. One thing to watch for tonight is whether we see another round of strong numbers for Nikki Haley, who quit the GOP race for President over two months ago. Last week, Haley won nearly 22 percent of the vote in Indiana against Donald Trump! That's just nuts.
JANUARY 6. Courtesy of House Republicans, I went on Monday afternoon to watch three more hours of the Jan. 6 security tapes from the U.S. Capitol. It once again showed the biggest lie about that day is that the police 'opened the doors' to let Trump supporters into the Capitol. That simply did not happen.
TAPES. Republicans say they have now released about half of the 40,000 hours of security tapes from Jan. 6. Those videos have not changed the narrative one bit. Trump supporters attacked police, smashed windows and doors, and forced their way into the Capitol in five different places. All because of lies about vote fraud.
RAP SHEET. After over three years of the Jan. 6 investigation, there has finally been someone arrested in the state of South Dakota. But it turns out Darrell Goins wasn't actually from South Dakota at the time - he was from Alabama - so the Mount Rushmore State still is not officially on the Jan. 6 scoreboard.
CHARGED. Goins was charged with assaulting police officers, as video shows him grappling with police outside the Capitol as rioters tried to rush past police lines. Goins later entered the Capitol through the Senate Wing Door, the site of the initial breach.
MUSE OF HISTORY. May 14, 1884. Sen. James Farley of California on this date presented a resolution from his state's legislative assembly, urging the feds to help settle questions about California's eastern boundary line. California claimed the existing markers on the ground were not laid out in a straight line - as they asked the Congress to approve a new survey.
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM:
The House convenes at 12 noon.
The Senate meets at 3 pm.
Check President Biden’s schedule.
Follow me on Twitter @jamiedupree.
Email me at jamiedupree@substack.com
If you want to say ‘thanks’ - you can buy me a cup of coffee.
"Referring to him as ‘the President’ or ‘Mr. Trump’ was considered a verbal slight." - as a native English speaker with a solid command of the language, how about Traitor Asshole? Seems to ring true.
Jamie, I also follow you on Twitter/X and I'm always amazed at the commentary you get there vs. here.