U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar‘s (D-TX) federal corruption trial has been delayed until after Election Day, a Texas judge ruled on Friday.
Judge Lee Rosenthal approved the request made by both Cuellar’s defense team and federal prosecutors. The trial will take place sometime next year in Houston.
Cuellar and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, were indicted on conspiracy and bribery charges in connection to their ties to Azerbaijan.
“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,” according to the indictment against the couple.
Federal prosecutors allege the couple accepted more than a half million dollars in bribes from an Azerbaijan-controlled energy company and a bank in Mexico in exchange for Cuellar to advance Azerbaijan-friendly legislation in Congress and for him to deliver a pro-Azerbaijan speech from the House floor. The legislation in question was related to Azerbaijan’s territorial dispute with Armenia.
“In exchange for the bribes paid by the Mexican bank, Congressman Cuellar allegedly agreed to influence legislative activity and to advise and pressure high-ranking U.S. Executive Branch officials regarding measures beneficial to the bank,” the indictment states.
The longtime congressman and his wife have strongly refuted the claims against them and said they are “innocent of these allegations.”
“Everything I have done in Congress has been to serve the people of South Texas,” Cuellar said. “Before I took action, I proactively sought legal advice from the House Ethics Committee, who gave me more than one written opinion, along with an additional opinion from a national law firm. Furthermore, we requested a meeting with the Washington D.C. prosecutors to explain the facts and they refused to discuss the case with us or hear our side.”
Cuellar, who has represented Texas’s 28th Congressional District since 2005, is running for reelection this year.
The district was a competitive battleground during the last election cycle, with Republicans flooding the race with millions of dollars in a bid to unseat Cuellar.
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Following his indictment, election watchers rated his race as more competitive, the Texas Tribune reported.
The National Republican Congressional Committee also added Cuellar to its list of targets following the GOP primary win of former Navy commander Jay Furman.
