General Discussion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Cuellar

snip

On May 3, 2024, Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, were indicted on money laundering, conspiracy, and bribery charges. The indictment says that nearly $600,000 in bribes from Azerbaijan and a Mexican commercial bank was laundered into shell companies owned by Imelda from December 2014 through at least November 2021. After the indictment was unsealed, Cuellar released a supportive statement regarding his wife. Former president Donald Trump defended Cuellar. On August 14, 2025, federal judge Lee Rosenthal dismissed two of the charges.

After Cuellar's indictment, two political advisors he had worked with pleaded guilty to charges that they had conspired with Cuellar to launder more than $200,000 in bribes from a Mexican bank. Cuellar's indictment accuses him of accepting money from a Mexican bank in exchange for "influencing the Treasury Department to work around an anti-money laundering policy that threatened the bank's interests." The advisors, including Cuellar's former campaign manager, Colin Strother, allegedly facilitated the payments. Strother and Florencio "Lencho" Rendon struck plea deals in exchange for cooperating with the investigation into Cuellar; they each face up to 20 years in prison and fines in excess of $100,000. Cuellar has said he is innocent of the charges and that his actions were "consistent with the actions of many of my colleagues and in the interest of the American people."

Cuellar's criminal trial was originally scheduled to begin in September 2025, but a federal judge moved the date to April 2026, along with dropping two of the 14 charges. A federal judge denied Cuellar's request to move the trial from Houston to Laredo.