The Department of Justice on Friday announced two indictments for a Democrat lawmaker and his wife over bribery allegations.
The Justice Department released a statement stating that Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and his wife, Imelda, were indicted over an alleged $600,000 bribery scheme.
BREAKING: Democrat Congressman Henry Cuellar and his wife have been charged by the DOJ for allegedly taking $600,000 in bribes from an oil & gas company owned and controlled by the government of Azerbaijan.
That's now two Democrats in Congress indicted for taking foreign bribes. pic.twitter.com/YgYHnE4IZZ
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) May 3, 2024
“An indictment was unsealed today in the Southern District of Texas charging U.S. Congressman Enrique Roberto ‘Henry’ Cuellar, 68, and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, 67, both of Laredo, Texas, with participating in two schemes involving bribery, unlawful foreign influence, and money laundering. Congressman Cuellar and Imelda Cuellar made their initial court appearance today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Dena Palermo in Houston,” the DOJ wrote in the statement.
Watch him not get removed from Congress. Only Republicans do this shit. Santos gone but the Senate Democrats kept a foreign agent and Cuellar knows his seat is safe, too. https://t.co/W0b5T8zXnV
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) May 3, 2024
According to the DOJ, Cuellar and his wife allegedly accepted approximately $600,000 in bribes from two foreign entities from December 2014 to November 2021. The alleged bribes were laundered through a series of front companies and middlemen into shell companies owned by Imelda Cuellar. The lawmaker’s wife did not perform any legitimate work for the payments.
BREAKING: US DOJ indicts Congressman Henry Cuellar and his wife Imelda for allegedly accepting bribes of at least $598,000 from two foreign entities.
The entities involved are an Azerbaijani state-controlled oil and gas company and a bank based in Mexico City.
The DOJ claims… pic.twitter.com/ttvwgsO9Fr
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) May 3, 2024
The two entities involved in the payments were an oil and gas company owned and controlled by the Government of Azerbaijan and a bank headquartered in Mexico City. Cuellar agreed to use his influence in Congress to influence U.S. foreign policy in favor of Azerbaijan. The lawmaker also allegedly agreed to influence legislative activity and pressure high-ranking U.S. Executive Branch officials to make moves in favor of the Mexican bank.
The Biden Justice Department only indicts easily replaceable Democrats—including Bob Menendez and Henry Cuellar—who don’t fall in line with Biden.
If the Biden DOJ actually cared about foreign bribery, the Biden family would be in prison right now. https://t.co/u3J2FuumFD
— 🇺🇸 Mike Davis 🇺🇸 (@mrddmia) May 3, 2024
The Democrat lawmaker and his wife each face two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery of a federal official and to have a public official act as an agent of a foreign principal, two counts of bribery of a federal official, two counts of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, two counts of violating the ban on public officials acting as agents of a foreign principal, one count of conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering and five counts of money laundering.
If found guilty, Cuellar and his wife will spend more than 100 years in Prison.
Rep. Henry Cuellar was indicted today for bribery.
In 2022, Democratic leaders threw their support behind him to beat a progressive primary challenger. pic.twitter.com/pTHMC52qnO
— jordan (@JordanUhl) May 4, 2024
The Democrat lawmaker, however, denied the allegation in a Friday statement, maintaining that he and his wife are innocent.
“I want to be clear that both my wife and I are innocent of these allegations,” Cuellar said. “Before I took any action, I proactively sought legal advice from the House Ethics Committee, who gave me more than one written opinion, along with an additional opinion from a national law firm.”