The Justice Department on Friday released an indictment against longtime Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, and his wife, Imelda, charging the pair with bribery and money laundering related to their ties with an oil and gas company controlled by Azerbaijan and a bank in Mexico City.
Here is the indictment:
This is disappointing.
He’s already won the Democratic primary for reelection, and his district only has a PVI of D+3. This could well lead to a Republican pick up.
Yeah, whether they eventually win or lose in court (and the Feds rarely charge unless they think they’ll win), this likely sinks him in the election. Ah, well - another reason we can’t have nice things. Stupid, corrupt motherfuckers handing elections to the opposition.
See what happens when Biden weaponises the DOJ! Not even Democrats are safe.
When i read the headline it said Texas Rep. and of course I immediately assumed Republican and had many mean, nasty thoughts about greedy, unscrupulous, shifty, and lying people… then I opened the article to see it’s a Democrat. I do not retract my mean thoughts at all. Just add in disappointment. He should be better than that.
You may mean “more careful”. I believe that a whole lot of politicians are dirty in one way or another, either because of rules that they’ve passed to protect themselves, or through bribery and perks. This guy was pretty blatant about things, and the longer he got away with it, the more brazen he became.
Personally, I mean less of a corrupt shit-heel. Fuck that guy. He deserves to lose, even to a fundy, anti-government loon. If he were a reasonable person he’d step down from the campaign immediately and let his primary opponent run (assuming that is permissible under the rules).
Both-siderism should be avoided, but let’s face it - politics is a rich potential breeding ground for corruption and grift. There seems to be a lot more Republicans wallowing at the trough these day, but the Democratic Party is hardly immune from being infiltrated by grifting scum. We’ve seen several examples in recent years. Create the ecosystem and someone will try to populate it.
Democrats have a long and… not proud history of being crooks and corrupt politicians. It’s not like somehow blue = incorruptible and morally sound.
I don’t know the rules either, but it would be great if your idea could prevail.
Let’s hope Hakeem Jeffries has some ideas, too. But of course if Cuellar is of Bob Menendez’s ilk, nothing will help.
I agree. To make things even more egregious, he tried to play the race card by accusing law enforcement of persecuting him because of his Hispanic heritage. No, asshole, it’s because you’re a fucking felon.
Cuellar had no primary opposition this cycle. Should he withdraw, Texas law allows the local Democratic party to name a replacement. But there’s no way to force him off the ballot.
He is not going to withdraw:
So whoever wins the runoff on 5/28 between Furman and Garza will be the rep for TX-28.
I don’t think that’s a guarantee. Cuellar was already in the news when DOJ initially raided his home and offices a couple years ago, and he went on to win a hotly-contested primary and the general election. Cuellar is deeply connected in his district – his brother is a county sheriff, and his sister was the tax collector. He’s steered hundreds of millions of dollars to his district, and to his generally poor constituents that matters. And, to be frank, there is a political culture in South Texas that is more tolerant of this kind of corruption.
Still, this doesn’t help!
Thanks.
sigh
Thanks again–good information to have.
Add to all that ‘the ego of the average politician’ and you get a lot of posturing about They’re Out To Get Me and I Will Fight For Justice and all the rest of that crap.
Not great for Henry – two of his political advisers have pled guilty to conspiring with him to launder bribe money through a Mexican bank.
Yeah, he’s going down hard. Which was always likely, but…yeah. He’s done.
I’ve always wondered why these folks almost always deny, deny, deny to their dying days that they never did anything wrong. I mean, he’s toast. We know it, he knows it, his wife knows it. But they so rarely fatalistically shrug and mea culpa with a “mistakes were made your honor, but I have done a lot of good in my life and I ask that the court take that into account as I throw myself on its mercy.” But I guess fatalism is bred out of ambitious politicians/crooks. I suppose the prospect of staying out of jail for several more months/years by struggling like a fish on a hook is worth it to them.
It’s also probably a tactic for his inevitable plea bargain. There’s no benefit to him to proactively admit guilt or resign his seat — those are chits he can use to try to secure the best deal possible.
In fact he may be hoping that a Biden DOJ will be willing to cut him a sweeter deal to get him to resign, so he can be replaced on the ballot. “I’ll never resign“ is just opening negotiations.