Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc./Getty Images
Representative Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, speaks during a House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on the Fiscal Year 2025 Request for the Department of Homeland Security in the Rayburn Building on Wednesday, April 10, 2024. .
CNN
—
Rep. Henry Cuellar’s former campaign manager and another political operative have agreed to plead guilty to federal crimes and cooperate with the Justice Department’s prosecution of the Texas Democrat, according to court documents released Wednesday. There is.
In March, Cuellar’s former campaign manager and former chief of staff, Mina Collin Strother, and Florencio “Lencho” Rendon, a political consultant and businessman from San Antonio, were charged with money laundering conspiracy. He agreed to plead guilty to the charges.
Mr. Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, were indicted last week on charges of accepting nearly $600,000 in bribes from two foreign companies: a Mexico City-based bank and an oil and gas company owned by the Azerbaijani government.
Both the lawmaker and his wife pleaded not guilty. Cuellar has publicly maintained his innocence, saying in a statement last week: “My wife and I are innocent of these allegations. Everything I have done in Congress has been to serve the people of South Texas. .”
According to court documents, Mr. Rendon and Mr. Cuellar concocted the bribery scheme in 2015 after learning that the Mexican bank needed help expanding its business in the United States. Prosecutors say Rendon entered into a bogus “consulting contract” with the bank for $15,000 a month.
Prosecutors say most of the money ended up going to the Cuellars, but Rendon didn’t think it was a good idea to send it directly to Imelda.
Prosecutors said Cuellar then offered to hire Strother as an intermediary. According to court documents, the alleged plot evolved into an arrangement in which Rendon would transfer $11,000 a month to Strother, and Strother would transfer $10,000 to a company owned by Imelda Cuellar.
According to court filings, Mr. Strother transferred approximately $215,000 to Mr. Cuellar’s wife between March 2016 and February 2018.
Strother and Rendon’s plea agreements do not name the Cuéllars, but court records list their case numbers as related to Cuéllar. The specific details contained in the plea agreement also match exactly those in the indictment against Cuéllar.
CNN has reached out to attorneys for Rendon and Strother, as well as Cuellar’s attorney, for comment.
