Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar and his wife indicted on bribery and foreign influence charges

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Friday unsealed an indictment against former Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, and his wife, Imelda, accusing the pair of bribery and money laundering related to their ties to a bank in Mexico and a oil and gas company controlled by Azerbaijan.

NBC News was the first to report that the charges were coming. The congressman and his wife were each released on $100,000 bail after an initial appearance in federal court in Houston, a DOJ spokesperson said Friday afternoon.

According to the indictment, from 2014 to 2021, the Cuellars accepted around US$600,000 in bribes from the two foreign entities in exchange for the parliamentarian carrying out official acts.

“The bribe payments were allegedly laundered, under false consultancy contracts, through a series of shell companies and intermediaries in shell companies owned by Imelda Cuellar, who performed little or no legitimate work under the contracts,” he said. the DOJ in a statement.

“In exchange for bribes paid by the Azerbaijani oil and gas company, Congressman Cuellar allegedly agreed to use his position to influence U.S. foreign policy in favor of Azerbaijan,” the DOJ continued. Cuellar allegedly agreed to influence legislative activity and to advise and pressure senior officials in the U.S. Executive Branch on measures beneficial to the bank.”

The congressman and his wife are each charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery of a federal official and cause a public official to act as an agent of a foreign principal; two counts of bribery of a federal official; two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud; two counts of violating the prohibition on public officials acting as agents of a foreign principal; one count of conspiracy to commit concealment of money laundering; and five counts of money laundering.

If convicted, they could spend years or even decades in prison.

In a statement released Friday, before the allegations were revealed, Cuellar denied any wrongdoing, saying he had “proactively sought legal advice” from the House Ethics Committee, which issued “more than one written opinion” on the matter. Much of his statement focused on his wife.

“I want to make it clear that both my wife and I are innocent of these allegations. Everything I did in Congress was to serve the people of South Texas,” Cuellar said in his statement, later adding, “The actions I took in Congress were consistent with the actions of many of my colleagues and in the best interests of Americans. people.”

“Imelda and I have been married for 32 years. In addition to being an incredible wife and mother, she is an accomplished businesswoman with two degrees. She spent her career working in banking, tax and consulting,” he continued. “The claim that she is anything but qualified and hardworking is wrong and offensive.”

A defiant Cuellar also made it clear that he will still seek re-election: “Let me be clear: I am running for re-election and I will win in November.”

A statement from the congressman’s defense attorneys was similar to Cuellar’s, but also noted that prosecutors indicted him just six months before Election Day.

“The government’s decision to press charges so close to the general election – and its decision to execute a search warrant 40 days before its [2022] primary – hurts the electorate and puts a thumb on the scale,” said attorneys Chris Flood and Eric Reed.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who endorsed Cuellar’s re-election bid last summer, called Cuellar a “valued member of the House Democratic Caucus” in a statement, noting that Cuellar is “entitled your day in court and the presumption of innocence throughout the legal process.”

Meanwhile, Cuellar will no longer be the top Democrat on the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Department of Homeland Security, Jeffries said.

Cuellar’s home and campaign office in Laredo, Texas, were raided in January 2022 as part of a federal investigation into Azerbaijan and a group of American businesspeople with ties to the country, authorities said at the time. Her office pledged to cooperate with the investigation. In April, Cuellar’s lawyer, Joshua Berman, told some media that federal authorities informed him that he was not a target of the investigation.

Cuellar was co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus. According to the indictment, in exchange for the bribes, Cuellar promised to influence legislation related to Azerbaijan’s conflict with neighboring Armenia; insert pro-Azerbaijan language into legislation and committee reports on security and economic aid programs; give a pro-Azerbaijani speech on the House floor; and “consult” with Azerbaijani officials about their efforts to lobby the U.S. government.

Before the indictment was released, Cuellar’s team called other member offices on Friday seeking advice on how to handle the situation, a source with knowledge of those calls told NBC News.

A year after the raid on his home — which previously yielded no arrests or charges — Cuellar told the Texas Tribune: “There was no wrongdoing on my part. … My focus has remained the same since day one in office: delivering results for Texans across my district.”

Despite the invasion, Cuellar narrowly defeated a progressive challenger, Jessica Cisneros, in his 2022 primary and was re-elected to his seat that November. He did not face a primary opponent this year and will be on the ballot in November seeking his 11th term in Congress.

Two years ago, Cuellar easily defeated Republican candidate Cassy Garcia, 57% to 43%. His district turned bluer when he won parts of San Antonio after redistricting. But the indictment will make Cuellar more vulnerable than he has been in the past; in 2020, Joe Biden won Cuellar’s district over Donald Trump by 7 percentage points.

Two Republicans will face off in a runoff at the end of May for the chance to face Cuellar in the fall.

“Henry Cuellar doesn’t put Texas first, he puts himself first,” said Delanie Bomar, spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “If his colleagues truly believe in putting ‘people above politics,’ they will call on him to resign. Otherwise, they are hypocrites whose statements about public service are not worth the paper they are written on.”

Cuellar, 66, lawyer, former customs broker and Texas Secretary of State. A member of the centrist Blue Dogs and the New Democrat Coalition, Cuellar was elected to the House in 2004.

He is the only Democrat in Congress who opposes abortion rights — a position that has infuriated many in his party.

The Cuellars are the second congressional couple to be charged in a foreign bribery scheme in the past year. In September, the DOJ charged then-Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and his wife after they allegedly accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars, including gold bars, in exchange for official acts designed to enrich themselves. three New Jersey businessmen and benefit the Egyptian government. Both Cuellar and Menendez are members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Menéndez, who stepped away from the leadership of Foreign Affairs, declared himself innocent. His trial is scheduled to begin later this month.

A third lawmaker, New York Republican George Santos, was expelled from the House in December following a scathing ethics report and a 23-count federal indictment accusing him of crimes including wire fraud and money laundering. Santos also pleaded not guilty.