Justice Department readying indictment of Texas Rep. Cuellar: Reports

WASHINGTON (CN) — The Department of Justice is reportedly preparing to indict Texas Representative Henry Cuellar, according to reports Friday.

Cuellar, who was reelected in 2022 to represent the Lone Star State’s 28th congressional district, became the subject of federal scrutiny that same year as the FBI raided his Laredo, Texas home as they investigated the lawmaker’s ties to Kemal Oksuz, a former Houston businessman.

NBC News was first to report the potential indictment.

The Texas Democrat was subpoenaed in 2018 as part of a Justice Department probe into Oksuz, who pleaded guilty to helping conceal the fact that Azerbaijan’s state oil company footed the bill for a 2013 congressional trip to the Cacusus nation.

Cuellar has been co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus.

It was not immediately clear whether any forthcoming indictment would be related to the FBI investigation. The Justice Department did not immediately return a request for comment.

As of Friday afternoon, the agency had yet to announce an indictment.

A spokesperson for Cuellar did not immediately comment, but the lawmaker denied any wrongdoing in a statement to NBC. “Everything I have done in Congress is to serve the people of South Texas,” he said, adding that he had sought legal advice on the matter from the House Committee on Ethics.

Despite the probe into his business ties, Cuellar clinched the Democratic nomination for Texas’s 28th congressional district in summer 2022, barely beating progressive rival Jessica Cisneros. The lawmaker, who has been in Congress since 2005, secured endorsements from then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn.

This is a developing story and will be updated …

Follow @BenjaminSWeiss

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