Pramila Jayapal flew to Cuba, met with the communist dictator, then came home and called Mexico to get the regime its oil back.
Now a sitting U.S. senator is calling it treason – and a former state attorney general says charges may follow.
What she admitted to next is something no sitting member of Congress has ever said out loud.
Jayapal Said the Quiet Part Out Loud
Jayapal didn't accidentally let this slip.
She said it proudly, at a public Seattle briefing, to her own constituents, after returning from a secret congressional delegation trip to Cuba from April 1 to April 6, 2026.
"I was in conversations with the ambassadors from Mexico and some other places, trying to figure out how to get oil there," Jayapal said.
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2052095946486415472?s=20
She then called Trump's Cuba sanctions – sanctions designed to strangle a communist regime 90 miles from American soil – an "economic bombing of the infrastructure of Cuba."
She said it was "illegal."
She said it was "against international law."
This is the same congresswoman who previously called ICE "a terrorist force."
Now she's coordinating with the Mexican ambassador to break American sanctions on a country Trump declared a national security emergency in January.
What Trump's Sanctions Actually Do
Trump signed an executive order in January declaring Cuba an extraordinary threat to American national security and imposing tariffs on any country that supplies the regime with oil.
The order worked.
Venezuela, which had been shipping 26,000 to 35,000 barrels of oil daily to Cuba, stopped completely after the U.S. capture of Nicolás Maduro.
Mexico, which was covering 44 percent of Cuba's imports at 17,200 barrels per day, halted shipments on January 9.
Since January, only a single Russian tanker has made it to Cuba – enough oil for 10 to 14 days.
Trump then signed a broader executive order on May 1 widening sanctions and allowing new penalties against foreign banks and firms dealing with Cuba, similar to the Iran and Russia sanction regimes.
The Legal Exposure Jayapal Is Trying to Laugh Off
Sen. Ashley Moody – Florida's former attorney general – went on Fox Business's Mornings with Maria Thursday morning and said Jayapal may face real legal consequences.
Moody knows what she's talking about.
The Logan Act of 1799 makes it a federal felony for U.S. citizens to engage in unauthorized negotiations with foreign governments involved in disputes with the United States.
https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/2052096397344735412?s=20
Legal analysts pointed out that Jayapal's conduct fits the Logan Act almost precisely – a law designed to stop private citizens from doing exactly what she described doing.
Sen. Mike Lee put it plainly: "There's something wrong with a member of Congress actively working to undermine the application of U.S. law against a foreign adversary."
Jayapal's defense was a Tweet: "Breaking news: Members of Congress meet with ambassadors of other countries every day. That's literally our right and responsibility."
Meeting with ambassadors is not the same thing as coordinating with them to route oil shipments around an active American sanctions regime.
The distinction matters.
Rick Scott Calls Out Jeffries Directly
Scott didn't go after Jayapal alone.
He went straight to the top – calling out House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and the entire House Democrat caucus.
"DISTURBING: @RepJeffries and @HouseDemocrats, members of your party are OPENLY admitting to aiding a communist adversary in coordination with foreign countries to VIOLATE American sanctions," Scott wrote. "@POTUS put those sanctions in place to keep Americans SAFE and to hold the Castro/Díaz-Canel regime accountable for their crimes."
https://twitter.com/SenRickScott/status/2052131715368325454?s=20
That's the real story here – Jayapal didn't freelance.
She got 52 House Democrats to sign a letter to Trump and Marco Rubio demanding the sanctions be ended.
She made the Cuba trip with Rep. Jonathan Jackson of Illinois.
This wasn't a rogue operation.
This was a coordinated Democrat effort to prop up a communist regime that Trump declared a threat to American national security.
What Democrats Are Actually Defending
Cuba is a State Sponsor of Terrorism with a Chinese intelligence presence on the island specifically built to intercept American signals and gave sanctuary to American fugitives for decades.
The regime has imprisoned, tortured, and killed political dissidents for 60 years.
https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/2052250632875303249?s=20
Yet Jayapal flew there, sat down with the dictator running that operation, praised Cuba's "advanced healthcare system" on video on April 24, and then came home and started working the phones to get the communist government its oil supply back.
The Logan Act hasn't produced a conviction in 227 years.
But a congresswoman going on record about coordinating with a foreign ambassador to route oil around an active American sanctions regime is the kind of case that breaks precedents.
Hakeem Jeffries needs to answer for what his members are doing.
He won't.
Sources:
- Stepheny Price and Ashley J. DiMella, "Dem representative admits to working with Mexico to sneak oil into Cuba, despite blockade," Fox News, May 6, 2026.
- Rusty Weiss, "Jayapal Torched for Betraying America: Brags About Working With Foreign Powers Against Trump on Cuba," RedState, May 7, 2026.
- Zachary Leeman, "Ashley Moody Says Pramila Jayapal May Be Guilty of 'Treason,'" Mediaite, May 7, 2026.
- Elizabeth Weibel, "Sen. Rick Scott Rips House Dems After Rep. Jayapal Says She Has Been Trying to Help Cuba Get Oil," Breitbart, May 6, 2026.
- Christian K. Caruzo, "Trump Signs Executive Order Declaring Cuba Threat, National Emergency," Breitbart, January 30, 2026.