Gabby Birenbaum on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal examines President Trump’s 2024 pardon of Democrat Henry Coyar, who faced DOJ charges—including $600K bribes from Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank via shell companies in 2022—for allegedly supporting Azerbaijan’s policies. Coyar denies wrongdoing, framing it as retaliation for opposing Biden’s border policies, while Trump’s move preempts his April 2025 trial and shields him from accountability. Running in a GOP-redrawn Texas district where Trump won by seven points in 2024, Coyar now faces a primary challenge from Judge Tono Ti Arena, potentially using Trump’s endorsement to deflect scrutiny over Democratic hypocrisy on corruption. The pardon underscores partisan weaponization of justice, leaving unanswered questions about DOJ complicity and future accountability. [Automatically generated summary]
Another headline to share with all of you this morning is about Congressman Henry Cueyar, our Democrat.
Congressman, the president yesterday saying that he would pardon him.
He was charged with bribery, conspiracy, and money laundering.
Here is the Congressman CNN caught up with him yesterday on Capitol Hill.
unidentified
First of all, I want to thank President Trump for this action that he took.
On behalf of my wife and my family, I want to say thank you.
I think the facts have been very clear about this, but I would also say I want to thank God for standing during this very difficult time with my family and I.
Now we can get back to work.
Nothing has changed.
We will continue working hard.
In fact, right now I got another congressman.
We're working on some legislation.
But I just want to, for now, that is my statement.
The Democrat from Texas, Congressman Henry Coyar, joining us this morning to talk about this pardon is Gabby Bierenbaum.
She is a Washington correspondent with the Texas Tribune.
Remind our viewers, Gabby, what the congressman was charged with and where were those charges before this pardon by the president.
unidentified
Yeah, so Congressman Coyar was first charged by the DOJ in 2024 related to a raid they conducted in 2022.
It was about a dozen counts, mainly bribery and money laundering.
So the allegation was that he took bribes of about $600,000 from the government of Azerbaijan and from a Mexican bank, and that he and his wife set up sort of shell companies to launder that money.
And then in exchange, he supported policy positions that Azerbaijan supported.
That was the allegation made by the DOJ.
Congressman Coyar has maintained that, you know, this was sort of retaliation for his position on the border, which was against President Biden's right for a while.
And clearly, President Trump agreed with that analysis and pardoned him yesterday.
Is the congressman running for re-election in 2026?
unidentified
He is, and that's going to be really critical here.
He's running in a seat that President Trump won in 2024 by about seven points.
And Congressman Coyar was one of the biggest Democratic overperformers last year.
He overperformed Kamala Harris by about 13 points.
It's a seat that Republicans have now redrawn to be more favorable to them.
Now Trump would have won it by about 10, assuming the new maps that Texas Republicans drew over the summer hold up in court.
And so this is going to be a critical seat.
Republicans have a recruit there, the Webb County judge where Laredo is, Tono Ti Arena.
So we would expect this to be a really competitive race.
And I think that's one of the dynamics, right, is that President Trump in pardoning Congressman Coyar sort of neutered what had been up to this point one of Republicans' best arguments against him, right?
What was the reaction from Democratic leadership to this pardon?
unidentified
Yes.
So Minority Leader Keep Jeffries said that he felt that the case against Quayar had been thin anyway, and he said he didn't know why Trump had made the decision he did, but that he felt the outcome was correct, that the case against Quayar should not have proceeded.
Is there a chance that Congressman Quayar could switch parties, as some have speculated in news reports?
unidentified
Yeah, that was the initial speculation yesterday, right, that there might have been some sort of deal.
I think Congressman Coyar, for now, put that to bed pretty quickly.
It just so happened, right?
He filed for re-election yesterday as a Democrat, and that filing sort of rendered on the Texas Secretary of State website right around the same time that the pardon kicked in shortly after.
So he is for this cycle running as a Democrat.
He's filed.
He described, he said, nothing has changed for him.
He said, I'm a conservative Democrat, as he's been.
He is, you know, one of the most moderate members of the Democratic caucus.
He's the last anti-abortion Democrat in the House.
And so as of now, it appears he's still running as a Democrat, but he, you know, he did make the decision to go on Fox yesterday.
He has thanked the president, talked about how he wants to find areas to work with the president, and that that's sort of always been the MO of his career.
Gabby Bierenbaum is the Washington correspondent for the Texas Tribune.
Thank you for your time.
unidentified
Thank you.
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