Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas and his spouse have been charged with bribery and foreign influence

The Justice Department unveiled an indictment on Friday against long-serving Representative Henry Cuellar, a Democrat from Texas, and his wife, Imelda. The charges accuse them of bribery and money laundering connected to their associations with a bank in Mexico and an oil and gas firm controlled by Azerbaijan.

According to the indictment, the Cuellars purportedly received approximately $600,000 in bribes from the two foreign entities in exchange for the congressman's undertaking of official actions.

"The bribe payments were allegedly laundered, pursuant to sham consulting contracts, through a series of front companies and middlemen into shell companies owned by Imelda Cuellar, who performed little to no legitimate work under the contracts," stated the Department of Justice (DOJ).

DOJ further elaborated, "In return for the bribes from the Azerbaijani oil and gas enterprise, Congressman Cuellar purportedly committed to leveraging his position to shape U.S. foreign policy favorably towards Azerbaijan. For the bribes received from the Mexican bank, Congressman Cuellar purportedly agreed to influence legislative processes and to advise and exert pressure on high-ranking officials within the U.S. Executive Branch to enact measures beneficial to the bank."

In January 2022, Cuellar's residence and campaign headquarters in Laredo, Texas, were raided as part of a federal probe into Azerbaijan and a cohort of American businessmen linked to the nation, according to law enforcement sources at the time. Cuellar's office had vowed to cooperate with the investigation.

Cuellar previously served as a co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus.