- Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas was indicted by federal prosecutors on Friday.
- He and his wife are accused of taking bribes from Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank.
- The growing scandal is drawing some comparisons on the right to George Santos.
Rep. Henry Cuellar is in the midst of a growing bribery scandal involving Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank.
The Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against the Texas Democrat and his wife on Friday, accusing the duo of accepting nearly $600,000 in bribes over the course of nearly seven years.
Cuellar is the third sitting lawmaker to be indicted this Congress, following former Republican Rep. George Santos of New York and Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New York.
Here's everything to know about the charges against Cuellar, who the Texas Democrat is, and why some on the right are comparing his situation to that of Santos.
Cuellar and his wife are accused of bribery, money laundering, and acting as an unregistered foreign agent
According to the 54-page indictment, Cuellar and his wife accepted bribes from both Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank from December 2014 to November 2021, doing so through a series of shell companies and intermediaries.
The indictment alleges that the couple collected roughly $600,000 in bribes — $360,000 from the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic and $236,390 from Banco Azteca.
In the case of Azerbaijan, Cuellar's been accused of using his position as a member of the House Appropriations Committee to influence legislation to the benefit of the oil-rich state.
With Banco Azteca, Cuellar has been accused pressuring officials in the executive branch to pursue policies favorable to the bank, as will as introducing legislation to shield the payday lending industry from federal regulation.
The criminal counts against Cuellar and his wife include:
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2 counts of conspiracy to commit bribery of a federal official and to have a public official act as an agent of a foreign principal;
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2 counts of bribery of a federal official;
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2 counts of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud;
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2 counts of violating the ban on public officials acting as agents of a foreign principal;
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1 count of conspiracy to commit money laundering;
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5 counts of money laundering.
Cuellar has denied any wrongdoing, saying in a statement that he and his wife are "innocent of these allegations" and that he still plans to seek reelection.
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Aside from his bribery scandal, Cuellar has been a top target of progressives for years, owing to his relatively conservative politics. He is the only House Democrat who voted against a bill to protect abortion rights nationwide during the last Congress, and he has previously received an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association.
Cuellar faced a stiff challenge in 2022 from immigration lawyer Jessica Cisneros, who had the backing of progressives like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders. Ultimately, Cuellar won his primary by less than 300 votes.
He was endorsed by the entirety of House Democratic leadership, who opted to endorse him again last year.
That's even after the congressman faced an FBI raid on his home in 2022.
The George Santos comparison
It's only been a few days, but so far, Democrats have largely held off on calling for Cuellar to resign.
A spokesperson for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on Friday that Cuellar would "take leave" as the top Democrat on a key House subcommittee until the issue is resolved.
That's led some to point to an apparent hypocrisy between how they're handling this situation versus George Santos, who was indicted on several criminal charges but was not yet convicted when Democrats and nearly half of House Republicans voted to expel him in December.
Santos himself has made an issue out of it, claiming in a post on X that he's "ready to go to the Supreme Court to fight the constitutionality of my expulsion if the standard isn't maintained."
But it's more complicated than that.
For one, Republicans don't seem to be on the same page about this. While House Republicans' campaign arm has sought to tie other Democrats to Cuellar's scandal, former President Donald Trump has defended the congressman, argued that he's being targeted by President Joe Biden because of his conservative politics.
Additionally, the standard that lawmakers set for Santos's expulsion was the release of a House Ethics Committee report. Once that committee did so — revealing, among other things, that Santos had bilked his campaign donors to pay for Botox — a broad bipartisan majority of lawmakers opted to expel Santos.