WASHINGTON — A pair of top Democrats in the House of Representatives slammed President Donald Trump's "deranged obsession" with attacking Somali-Americans on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Trump said he does not want Somalis in the United States because "they contribute nothing," the AP reported. His most recent attack follows a report by the conservative outlet City Journal that accused Somali Americans of committing fraud in Minnesota, the report added.
"He's a bigoted fool," Omar said. "There's nothing surprising about the president using racist, xenophobic, and Islamophobic rhetoric to attack an entire community."
Omar added that Trump's comments make him look weak to the Somali community she represents.
"They're all mockingly wondering if he's ok, and so am I," she said. "Even the reporters were asking, 'Why are you bringing them up?' It just seems like he has a very deranged and creepy obsession with me and, by extension, the Somali Americans, and it's really off-putting. It puts his mental decline on display in a way that I don't think he's smart enough to recognize."
The Trump administration has since stepped up its immigration enforcement activities against Somali-Americans since the president made his remarks, officials told the AP.
Ocasio-Cortez said the immigration raids show Trump is not aware of the legal complexities of his actions. She warned that his actions could leave him vulnerable to legal action.
"There are so many legal exemptions, from libel laws to slander, that, as an elected official, there are very few protections," she said.
Federal authorities conducting immigration enforcement in Florida were seen pulling a woman wearing medical scrubs from her vehicle as she shouted that she was a U.S. citizen.
In a video captured by David Goodhue of The Miami Herald on Wednesday, agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Patrol, and U.S Border Patrol could be seen forcing the woman to the ground, where she was handcuffed. The incident reportedly occurred in Key Largo.
"I'm a U.S. citizen, please help me!" the woman yelled. "This is unfair. Why are you doing this to me?"
Agents placed the woman in a patrol vehicle and released her shortly after.
It was not immediately clear why the woman was detained.
"She is visible white and 👱 blond, a medical worker, speaks with no accent. This should be a warning sign for MAGAt as they could be preyed by ICE at any time!" Altan Alpa noted on X.
President Donald Trump's son-in-law likely broke the law this week, one analyst wrote Wednesday.
Jared Kushner traveled to Moscow on Tuesday to participate in high-stakes foreign policy negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin over a potential peace deal with Ukraine. The U.S. delegation consisted of Kushner, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and an interpreter.
"Kushner’s participation in the Moscow meeting — and the similar role he played in the Gaza negotiations — likely violates the law," wrote Judd Legum for Popular Information.
As a representative of the Trump administration, he technically qualifies as a Special Government Employee — a designation that requires specific legal guidelines.
However, "Trump has not named Kushner an SGE," noted Legum, even though a 1977 Department of Justice opinion suggests that performing governmental functions under presidential direction can constitute an official capacity.
"Here, Kushner is engaged in activities that can only be conducted by government officials," wrote Legum.
Private citizens are banned from unauthorized foreign negotiations under the Logan Act. Furthermore, accepting payments from foreign governments is restricted under the Foreign Emoluments Clause. But since leaving the White House four years ago, Kushner has raised nearly $5 billion for his private equity firm. Nearly 99% of that funding has come from foreign sources.
"As a de facto SGE with substantial authority, the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the Constitution prohibits Kushner from accepting 'any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State,' noted Legum.
The Saudi government pays Kushner about $25 million a year, while other investors, such as the governments of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, pay up to 2% a year.
"Kushner is continuing to collect these fees as he serves in a top foreign policy role for the Trump administration. This is precisely the kind of behavior the Foreign Emoluments Clause was designed to prevent," he said.
Kushner notably pledged last year that he would not resume a foreign policy role in a potential second Trump administration. He stressed his commitment to being a private investor and keeping away from governmental affairs.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump pardoned Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), a conservative Democratic congressman facing bribery, money laundering and conspiracy charges, out of disinterested concern for the politicization of the Department of Justice under Joe Biden, Republican senator Ted Cruz claimed on Wednesday.
“The Constitution gives the pardon power exclusively to the President,” Cruz told Raw Story at the Capitol, when asked about the Cuellar pardon, which Trump announced on social media. “It's his decision how to exercise it.”
Raw Story asked if Cruz was worried, given the seriousness of the charges against Cuellar, that the Trump White House was nonetheless setting “a bad example for politicians writ large?”
“The Biden Department of Justice, sadly, was weaponized and politicized,” Cruz said. “And I think President Trump is rightly concerned about the politicization of the Department of Justice.”
Trump made the same claim in his statement announcing the Cuellar pardon.
In reality, Trump has been widely criticized for politicizing the Department of Justice himself, not least through direct public orders to Attorney General Pam Bondi to indict political enemies such as former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Trump's use of the pardon power has also been widely criticized, from issuing pardons and other acts of clemency to more than 1,500 people charged in relation to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on Congress to rewarding domestic and international allies — this week including a former president of Honduras convicted of drug trafficking, which Trump also claimed was a case of victimization under Joe Biden.
Cuellar has been in Congress since 2005. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in Houston in May 2024, when Joe Biden was president.
According to the DoJ, Cuellar and his wife Imelda Cuellar “allegedly accepted approximately $600,000 in bribes from two foreign entities: an oil and gas company wholly owned and controlled by the Government of Azerbaijan, and a bank headquartered in Mexico City.”
The DoJ alleged that the bribes were “laundered, pursuant to sham consulting contracts, through a series of front companies and middlemen into shell companies owned by Imelda Cuellar,” while “Congressman Cuellar allegedly agreed to use his office to influence U.S. foreign policy in favor of Azerbaijan …and to advise and pressure high-ranking U.S. Executive Branch officials regarding measures beneficial to the bank.”
Earlier this year it was widely reported that the DoJ had decided to move forward with the case, despite Trump indicating support for the Cuellars.
On Wednesday, announcing the pardon on Truth Social, Trump said he pardoned Cuellar because he had been victimized for “bravely [speaking] out against” the Biden administration on immigration policy.
After a rambling complaint about supposed Democratic bias at the Department of Justice during the Biden administration, Trump said: “Henry, I don’t know you, but you can sleep well tonight — Your nightmare is finally over!”
Before the Cuellar pardon became public, Michael Wolff, a leading Trump biographer, described how even the disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein worried about how Trump would use the pardon power.
"Jeffrey Epstein had a kind of riff about this,” Wolff told the Daily Beast, “because even before Trump became president, [Epstein] would talk about, 'If Donald became president and he had the pardon power ... Trump … often … talked about this in a kind of wide-eyed incredulity. 'I can pardon anyone. No one can do anything about it. If I pardon them. I have absolute power.'
"Epstein had focused on this and said … he loves showing the power that he has, and he said he would do it in a childlike way.”
Trump's relationship with Epstein remains the subject of a broiling Capitol Hill scandal, concerning the release of files related to Epstein's arrest and death in 2019.
At the Capitol on Wednesday, Raw Story also caught up with Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX).
“What do you make of this full unconditional pardon of your colleague, Mr. Cuellar?” Raw Story asked.
“It's entirely within the President's prerogative and Congress doesn't have a role,” Cornyn said.
All presidential pardons are political.
Cornyn pointed to political realities, saying: “I've known Henry a long time and had a very productive working relationship. He's I guess one of the last of the 'Blue Dogs' that are quickly becoming extinct, Democrats that actually will work with Republicans.”
“What do you make of the charges against him?” Raw Story asked, listing bribery, money laundering and conspiracy.
“That's the Department of Justice,” Cornyn said. “I don't have anything to do with that.”
Democrats lost a hard-fought special election in a deep-red Tennessee congressional district, but CNN's Harry Enten said the results should send a shiver down Republicans' spines.
Republican Matt Van Epps defeated Democratic state Rep. Aftyn Behn in a district President Donald Trump won by nearly 22 points last year, and Enten told "CNN News Central" the results predicted a midterm beatdown looming for the GOP.
"Republicans should be runningfor the hills this morningbecause the blue wave isbuilding," Enten said. "What are we talkingabout here? Well, Van Epps, Matt Van Epps, the Republicancandidate, he won it by nine.But this is a district that Donald Trump won by 22 points –15 points, 17 points. This is a13-point gain for the Democratsin terms of the margin, andexcuse time for Republicans isover because I hear all aboutthese special elections, all theturnout so low. It's notrepresentative of what happenedin the midterm election. Theturnout last night in Tennessee'sseventh district was equal tothe turnout in the 2022 midtermelection. So the blue wave, itseems to be building right outof center of Tennessee."
Democrats have outperformed Kamala Harris in each of this year's special elections, in Arizona, Florida, Texas, Virginia and now Tennessee, and Enten said that strongly suggests gains in next year's election.
"We have seenthe Democratic outperformance of Kamala Harris happening acrossthe political map," Enten said. "What happenedlast night in Tennessee ain'tjust staying in Tennessee. It isspreading itself throughout thenation. As I said, to me, lookingat these these results, it lookslike a blue wave is building."
"You know, so we'relooking at these specialelections," he added. "You know, we're sortof applying these hypotheticalnumbers, right, in terms, oh, Democrats would gain north of 40seats if you moved everythingover, you know, 13 points fromthe 2024 presidential result.But we actually have history toshow that what happens inspecial elections doesn't juststay in special elections. It spills over to the midtermresults, special elections andmidterm results. I just keepgoing to this. When a partyoutperformed in specialelections since 2005, five outof five times, they went on towin a majority in the U.S. Houseof Representatives. Whathappened last night in Tennesseeis a very, very bad omen for Republicans and a very, verygood omen for Democrats."
Democrats are emboldened as GOP communicators sound the alarm over what they say is "one of the biggest flashing red light warning signs we’ve seen yet for Republicans."
Right-wing personality Collin Rugg reported late on Tuesday what would be seen as a troubling trend for Republicans, even after the GOP won a highly watched contest in Tennessee.
"JUST IN: Republican Matt Van Epps is expected to win Tennessee's 7th District by just 7 points, a district Trump won by 22 points in 2024," the influencer wrote on social media. "Here are the shifts by county compared to the 2024 presidential election: Davidson: 25 points to the left. Dickson: 12 points to the left. Hickman: 8 points to the left. Humphreys: 12 points to the left. Wayne: 7 points to the left. Decatur: 9 points to the left. Benton: 9 points to the left. Houston: 12 points to the left. Perry: 15 points to the left."
GOP communicator Matt Whitlock shared the message from Rugg, writing with it, "This is one of the biggest flashing red light warning signs we’ve seen yet for Republicans."
"If every House district in the country shifted left by this same amount - about 15 points - we would be looking at a blue wave far worse than 2018 - estimated 43 seats flipping," he wrote.
Dem communicator CJ Warnke of House Majority PAC picked up on that, writing, "If top Republican strategists are sounding the alarm like this publicly, you can only imagine the meltdowns being had behind closed doors."
Dem lawmaker Ted Lieu seized on that, writing, "Dear Indiana and Florida GOP: The only way you can gerrymander more red seats is by making existing Republican incumbent districts even weaker."
"I dare you to do so after tonight’s 13 point over performance by Democrats in a midterm level turnout special election in Tennessee," the congressman added.
George Retes, a 26-year-old U.S. citizen and Army veteran, isn’t staying quiet — five months after he says he was assaulted and detained by immigration agents on his commute to work as a security contractor outside Los Angeles.
“Your voice matters,” Retes told Raw Story. “Calling your representatives, calling your people in charge, letting your voice be heard: it matters.”
Retes is the face of a new $250,000 ad campaign from Home of the Brave, a nonprofit focused on portraying what it calls the “catastrophic harm” of President Donald Trump’s second administration.
In the one-minute ad, “The Veteran Who ICE Abducted — and Is Fighting Back,” Retes recounts how he was stopped by a line of “hostile” ICE agents who shattered his car window, pepper sprayed him in the face and threw him to the ground before detaining him over a weekend.
Meant as a direct response to recruitment and self-deportation ads from the Department of Homeland Security, the Home of the Brave ads will air on streaming services where DHS ads have appeared.
“It's important to tell my story now because of everything that's still going on,” Retes said.
“Even though everyone doesn't see it every day, doesn't mean it's not happening.”
Close to 200 U.S. citizens have been detained by ICE since Trump returned to power in January, ProPublica reported.
Retes, who served a tour in Iraq, said DHS has continually called him a “liar.”
In response to an op-ed he wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle, DHS accused Retes via an X post of being violent and refusing to comply with law enforcement, leading to arrest for assault.
As CBP and ICE agents were executing criminal search warrants on July 10 at the marijuana sites in Camarillo, CA, George Retes—a U.S. citizen—became violent and refused to comply with law enforcement. He challenged agents and blocked their route by refusing to move his vehicle… pic.twitter.com/aKS2voKU3j — Homeland Security (@DHSgov) September 17, 2025
Two weeks later, a DHS press release again claimed Retes was arrested for assault.
Retes said he “100 percent” rejects claims that he was violent and he was never charged with any such crimes during the interaction with immigration agents.
“Something that the current administration is refusing to do is just take accountability,” Retes said
“Lying on my name, lying on people. It's terrible.”
The new ad proves it, he said — by showing footage of his vehicle being swarmed by a line of immigration agents and then him being pinned to the ground.
“I take it with a grain of salt when they come out with these Tweets,” Retes said. “The proof is all there. If now you want to make stories, the court’s right there.”
‘F-----g do your job’
In an extended three-minute version of the video, Retes further explains how he was tear-gassed and how immigration agents zip-tied him and knelt on his back and neck while he was on his way to work security at a state-legal cannabis farm that ICE raided.
Retes is also working with a nonprofit public interest law firm, Institute for Justice, to sue the Trump administration under the Federal Tort Claims Act for the treatment he endured at the hands of federal immigration officers.
“It's all out there, the footage, and they're just imposing their version of reality,” Anya Bidwell, senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, told Raw Story.
While in detention, Retes was put on suicide watch.
But “the most upsetting” part of the ordeal, he said, was that he missed his daughter’s third birthday celebration.
He told Raw Story he slept on a concrete bed in a room with a “tiny window” and lights switched on “24/7.”
He wasn’t allowed a shower, despite his “body essentially being on fire,” Bidwell said.
George Retes, a U.S. citizen, says he was detained by ICE on his way to work (Photo provided by Institute for Justice)
Retes said he was naked but for a hospital gown and “wasn't able to flush the toilet on my own.”
“It was just an overall terrible experience, and it was something I would never want to relive, and I hope no one ever goes through,” Retes said.
Retes said he was suspended from his job with Securitas, a national security guard contractor, for three weeks following his detention.
“They basically said I had to prove I was innocent before I could go back to work,” Retes said.
The experience left “a bad taste in my mouth,” Retes said, so he quit the Securitas job and is looking for new employment while sharing his story.
Retes said his message to Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other government leaders was simple: “F—–g do your job.”
“Make this country better … right now,” Retes said, lamenting “prices going crazy. People are divided. Agents just doing whatever they want, violating rights.”
Holding out hope for Trump to stop “constantly trying to divide the country” is “scary,” Retes said.
During a Cabinet meeting, Trump appeared to struggle with alertness and coherence while disparaging Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D).
“I think the man’s a grossly incompetent man,” a drowsy Trump said, referring to Walz.
Trump then appeared to take a swipe at both Walz and Vance.
“I thought that from the day I watched JD destroy him in a debate. I was saying, ‘Who was more incompetent? That man or my man?’ I had a man, and he had a man—they were both incompetent," said Trump.
Trump's confused rant left Edith Olmstead of The New Republic taken aback.
"Based solely on the structure of Trump’s statement, the president appeared to assert that 'that man' and 'his man' were both incompetent.' But surely Trump would go on to clarify what he meant, right? Wrong," she wrote.
Trump instead added, "I had a man and a woman, I thought she was very incompetent too. But now she’s leading the field and I think she’s leading the field in the nomination."
Olmstead noted Trump appeared to "glower" as Vance spoke, whereas he "merely kept his eyes shut" for most Cabinet members.
President Donald Trump finished a press conference on Tuesday with an angry rant against Somali-American Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), as well as the Somali community in general.
The tirade began as a complaint against Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), who was on the opposing presidential ticket as former Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate in last year's election. The Minneapolis-St. Paul area, which Omar represents, has one of America's largest Somali diasporas.
"There's something wrong with him," said Trump. "And you look at what he's done with Somalia, where Somalia, which is barely a country — they have no anything, they just run around killing each other. There's no structure. And when I see somebody like Ilhan Omar, who I don't know at all, but I always watch her, for years I've watched her complain about our Constitution, how she's been treated badly, the Constitution, the United States of America is a bad place, hates everybody, hates Jewish people, hates everybody. I think she's an incompetent person. She's a real terrible person."
"But when I watch what is happening in Minnesota, the Land of a Thousand Lakes, or however many lakes they have — they got a lot of lakes," Trump continued. "But this beautiful place, and I see these people ripping it off, and now I'm understanding, and you're going to look into this, I hear they ripped off, Somalians ripped off that state for billions of dollars. Billions. Every year. Billions of dollars, and they contribute nothing."
Trump is likely referring to a newly emerging federal case alleging a handful of individuals in Minnesota, including some in the Somali community, set up fake companies that embezzled billions in pandemic relief money.
During his Tuesday tirade, Trump issued a grim warning that America is at a "tipping point" — and could go "one way or the other."
"We're going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country," he warned. "Ilhan Omar is garbage. She's garbage. Her friends are garbage. These aren't people that work. These aren't people that say, 'Come on, let's make this place great.' These are people who do nothing but complain. They complain. And from where they came from, they got nothing."
He concluded: "When they come from hell, and they complain and do nothing but b----b----. We don't want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it."
In recent months, Trump has repeatedly clashed with Omar, one of the first Muslim women ever elected to Congress. Last month, he accused her of not understanding the Constitution, to which she replied, "Unlike you, I can read." He has also said he is working on deporting Omar back to Somalia, from which she fled as a child refugee decades ago. She responded by calling him a "lying buffoon."
President Donald Trump has been slapped with a $310 million lawsuit alleging that the president engaged in a “trafficking venture” that was “identical in every material respect” to the sex-trafficking operation allegedly spearheaded by Jeffrey Epstein.
Filed on Nov. 24 in Palm Beach County, the lawsuit names Trump in both his individual and official capacity as president, alongside Tesla founder and Trump ally Elon Musk and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, both of whom have spent time inside Epstein’s home, according to reports and, in Musk’s case, his own admission.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, whose names have been redacted, accuse Trump and others of operating an “eight-year trafficking and exploitation venture that began in 2018 [that] has continued and escalated under the current Trump administration,” according to an uncertified copy of the lawsuit, published and reported on Tuesday by the hyper-local news outlet BOCA News Now.
Specifically, the plaintiffs accuse Trump of “grooming” the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit – an unnamed minor on whose behalf the lawsuit was filed – starting in 1998, “the exact year [the] plaintiff was born.” They accuse Trump of using Gates’ Gates Foundation as the primary “cover and silencing mechanism” to continue the operation, as well as facilitating “coordinated sexual assaults.”
The plaintiffs also allege that the minor plaintiff's “infant daughter” was taken from her “as punishment for filing lawsuits,” which they argue was “identical to Epstein’s use of custody threats against mothers who sued.”
Additionally, the plaintiffs accuse Trump and the other named defendants of having "attempted to murder" the lead plaintiff "no fewer than [on] five separate occasions" between 2023 and November of this year, including by way of "poisoning, vehicular assaults and orchestrated physical attacks designed to appear accidental."
Trump is not facing any active criminal charges, and has and continues to deny any wrong-doing as it relates to Epstein, who died in 2019 awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. The plaintiffs in the case are seeking at least $310 million in compensatory damages, more than $134 million in attorneys’ fees, and injunctive relief that would include the “immediate return of full legal and physical custody” of the lead plaintiff’s daughter. They also asked the court that the trial be expedited so that a trial by jury is held by Dec. 20.
A Republican senator's proposal to overhaul U.S. citizenship could force President Donald Trump's wife and youngest son into a tight spot.
Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) intends to introduce legislation that would end dual citizenship by requiring American citizens to declare their “exclusive allegiance” to the U.S. and renounce their foreign citizenship, as the Trump-endorsed senator did for his own Colombian citizenship, reported The Daily Beast.
“One of the greatest honors of my life was when I became an American citizen at 18, the first opportunity I could do so,” the Colombian-born Moreno told Fox News Digital.
“It was an honor to pledge an Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America and only to the United States of America,” Moreno added. “Being an American citizen is an honor and a privilege — and if you want to be an American, it’s all or nothing. It’s time to end dual citizenship for good.”
Moreno's proposal could create a headache for the first lady and Barron Trump, who remain dual citizens of the U.S. and Slovenia after Melania filed paperwork at some point ensuring her son would also have citizenship in her birth country.
“She did that to give her son options,” said Washington Post reporter Mary Jordan, who published a book on Melania Trump last year titled "The Art of Her Deal." “If you have a Slovenian citizenship, which Barron is entitled to, the passport makes a lot of things easier."
“I think she also likes that he speaks Slovenian, he has a Slovenian passport," Jordan added. "By getting him the citizenship and the passport it’s easier for him to get a job, it’s easier for him to set up a business, it’s easier for him to inherit land. It’s mama bear just giving options to her son.”
Born in 1970 in Slovenia, Melania Trump is only the second first lady born outside the United States, after President John Quincy Adams's wife Louisa Adams, who was born in London in 1775.
She is the only first lady to become a naturalized U.S. citizen and obtained her citizenship in July 2006 on an EB-1 visa, which is reserved for immigrants with “extraordinary ability” and “sustained national and international acclaim.”
The Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025 proposed by Moreno would be enforced by the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security and would set up a system to track dual citizens, who would then have a year to renounce their foreign citizenship, or forfeit their U.S. citizenship.
Anyone who failed to comply within that year would automatically lose their U.S. citizenship, and anyone who gave up their U.S. citizenship would be considered foreigners and recorded as non-citizens.
Any hope Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth might have that Navy Admiral Frank Bradley will absorb all the blame for what is being called a “war crime” was disabused by an MS NOW panel on Tuesday morning.
Reacting to both Hegseth and the White House singling out the admiral for having the final say on the attack that killed two alleged "narcoterrorists" who were hanging onto a burning vessel in the Caribbean in September, the “Morning Joe” co-hosts claimed the embattled Pentagon chief is facing a reckoning.
With host Joe Scarborough claiming Hegseth does not have a lot of fans among Republican lawmakers, he noted that normally stoic Fox News personality Brit Hume yesterday came down hard on the Pentagon head — which is a sign that the tide is turning.
“It's very interesting, Brit Hume proving once again that the administration, like in the Epstein files, finds themselves in a position where they're not fighting lefties, right? They're not going up against the most progressive voices in America, people they can call communists or Marxists,” Scarborough pointed out. “It is Fox News contributors. It is [National Review’s] Andy McCarthy saying, ‘No, no, no, no, no.’ This new excuse of pointing, you know, at somebody else.”
“You're right,” co-host Willie Geist later contributed. “The White House was caught in this moment right now where they're saying, ‘Well, yes, Defense Secretary Hegseth did order the second strike, but not to kill the people just to disable the boat. The decision to kill the people, allegedly, is that of Admiral Bradley, a decorated admiral in the Navy. So to push that admiral in front of the bus is not going to end well, probably for Defense Secretary Hegseth.”
“He's in a bind. The White House is in a bind,” he warned.
A Texas judge who announced his candidacy in a high-profile U.S. House race Tuesday isn’t likely to face repercussions despite attracting a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission , experts told Raw Story.
Tano Tijerina, a Democrat-turned-Republican judge in Webb County, Texas, has long been eyeing a campaign against Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX).
Cuellar has held the 28th congressional district seat since 2005, now a prime GOP target in recent redistricting attempts and in light of bribery charges against Cuellar.
On Nov. 21, Cecilia Martinez, an ethics professor from San Antonio, filed an FEC complaint, alleging Tijerina used an exploratory committee to circumvent state resign-to-run laws, which require officeholders to step down from an elected job upon deciding to campaign for another, if there’s more than a year and 30 days left in the term.
Tijerina’s term as a county judge ends Dec. 31, 2026. But, he launched an exploratory committee for a challenge to Cuellar in June, gaining national attention.
Martinez’s allegation that Tijerina violated federal law has also attracted coverage.
She alleges Tijerina made up his mind to run for Congress long before launching his exploratory committee, citing interviews with local TV and radio stations where the judge acknowledged needing to wait until after Dec. 1 to announce a potential candidacy, in order to keep his job.
The complaint also references a social media post, shared by Tijerina, from a Webb County employee who said she was excited to see her “boss” head to Congress.
The FEC says a candidate is considered to be campaigning rather than “testing the waters” if they advertise or make statements as candidates, inform the media of a planned date to announce their candidacy, or raise more money than “reasonably needed to test the waters.”
The complaint says: “Judge Tijerina’s congressional campaign remains under the guise of an exploratory committee not because he is legitimately testing the waters, but because he does not want to face the state-law consequences of declaring his candidacy.”
Tijerina’s exploratory committee called the complaint a “political sham.”
Below is the Tano Tijerina Exploratory Committee's response to the Laredo Morning Times sloppy hit piece:
The Laredo Morning Times has earned itself the Ambush Journalism Award after firing off a press request at 7:51 AM on a Saturday while the entire County government was busy… — Judge Tano Tijerina (@JudgeTano) November 23, 2025
“Judge Tano Tijerina is following every federal and state rule governing exploratory activity, and has not crossed a single legal line,” said the committee in an X post shared by Tijerina on Nov. 23.
“This is a coordinated smear campaign by far-left operatives terrified that even the possibility of Judge Tijerina exploring a run jeopardizes their grip on TX-28.
“Instead of finding an alternative for their own ethically compromised incumbent, they dug up an ‘online’ professor to rubber-stamp a flimsy accusation that falls apart the moment you read it.”
Bradley A. Smith, a professor at Capital University Law School who served on the FEC from 2000-05, including a year as chair, told Raw Story: “These are very hard cases to try to claim, ‘Oh, no, he's actually a candidate and needs to start filing reports as a candidate.
“You basically are asking the FEC, or eventually a court, to sort of mind read what the person was really planning to do.”
‘They game laws all the time’
Once an individual decides to become a candidate, they are required to register with the FEC within 15 days of raising or spending $5,000.
The Tijerina complaint points out that he is working with a political consultancy, Lilly and Company, and hosted a fundraiser in October, soliciting donations between $500 and $7,000.
But fundraising for an exploratory committee is allowed even if it exceeds $5,000, the FEC says. Only once the individual decides to be a candidate does the $5,000 threshold come into play.
Smith said: “The whole idea is to test the water. You’re telling people, ‘Yeah, I'm thinking about running for Congress. I'm thinking really seriously about it. I'm raising money for it,’ because, remember, you can raise this money, and then if you declare, then the money all has to be reported.”
Activities considered to be testing the waters include polling, traveling and making calls.
“By definition, you are doing campaign stuff, and you can very specifically do things like public polling, see how you might do, and that sort of thing,” Smith said.
“So, it's pretty easy for a candidate in this position, especially once the complaint is filed … to just say, ‘Well, yeah, I'm considering it, there's no doubt about that … that's why I set up an exploratory committee, but I haven't made a final decision.’”
While “all the money he's raising is in accordance with the rules,” Smith said Tijerina could be in “technical violation.”
“Is he gaming the Texas state law? Yeah, probably, but they game laws all the time in this kind of thing,” Smith said.
Randall Erben, an adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, said it’d be up to a court to determine if Tijerina was a candidate prior to 13 months before the end of his term.
Erben said Texas courts “like eligibility, and they like people staying in office. That’s the public policy of the state.”
However, the framers of the resign-to-run provisions wanted “public office holders to pay attention to what they were doing.
“They were elected to a full term on a county or district office or city office. They wanted them to focus 100 percent on the duties for which they were elected, and not be spending a lot of time seeking other office.
“It's pretty simple public policy, and especially in this day and age where campaigning is 24/7, 365, I think the public policy is probably even more valid now than it was when they added it in the 1950s.”
‘Cost of doing business’
The FEC would not confirm receipt of the Tijerina complaint, due to confidentiality requirements. Any complaint resolutions are published 30 days after a vote to close the matter, said spokesperson Myles Martin.
Smith said: “As a practical matter, I don't think the FEC has ever been very rigorous in trying to say, ‘You've gone too far.’”
With President Donald Trump firing one commissioner and others resigning, the agency has for months lacked a quorum, meaning it “can't act on anything” anyway, Smith said.
“If we think about this for the midterms … it's quite likely that if the fine were assessed [against Tijerina], it wouldn't be until, quite possibly, after the 2026 election.
“A lot of campaigns say, ‘Well, cost of doing business,’ at that point.”
George Retes, a U.S. citizen, says he was detained by ICE on his way to work (Photo provided by Institute for Justice)