Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas said Sunday that federal officials connected to the Department of Justice attempted to bribe and entrap him in an undercover sting operation before prosecutors brought charges alleging he accepted funds tied to foreign interests.
Cuellar discussed the matter during an interview on “Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo,” where he described what he said was a fabricated company and financial account established to deliver payments to him as a supposed bribe.
“… even went and did a sting operation, a separate sting operation to try to bribe me. And that failed, and what they did there was wrong. So again, no quid pro quo from any of the evidence, from any of the individuals,” Cuellar told Bartiromo.
“And, therefore, they even did attempted [sic] a sting operation where they were trying to entrap me, and that failed.”
The Justice Department indicted Cuellar in May 2024, alleging he accepted about $600,000 from an oil and gas company linked to the Azerbaijani government and from a Mexican bank in exchange for directing U.S. foreign policy in ways that benefitted Azerbaijan. Cuellar has denied any wrongdoing.
Bartiromo asked Cuellar who he believed was behind the attempted operation.
Cuellar said materials obtained by his legal team showed the effort originated in Washington.
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“We got all the testimony, the [FBI official form] 302s, the sting operation. They set up a false company, [and] a false account. They took out money — we saw all this — they took out the money and they said this money was to bribe me. They try to use this money,” Cuellar said.
“They talked to my D.C. staff. My D.C. staff told them, ‘No, there was nothing there.’ So they actually returned the money back to the account because they couldn’t bribe me. So the Biden administration, they tried to entrap me and try to bribe me and that failed.”
Cuellar said prosecutors in Houston did not participate in the effort and that actions tied to the probe came from officials in Washington.
“And this is very significant because — one more thing — everything came in from the DOJ in D.C. Everything came from the DOC [sic] office there. The local office, that is the one in Houston, never got enough. And from my sources, they did not get involved because they felt there was not a case and they said, ‘We’re not gonna get involved,’” Cuellar said.
“The Houston office said, ‘We’re not gonna get involved.’ It’s all the DOJ people in Washington, D.C.”
Cuellar and his wife were charged with receiving payments linked to Azerbaijan and a Mexican financial institution over a seven-year span.
Prosecutors allege he used his congressional role to influence U.S. policy. Cuellar publicly denied the allegations after the indictment was announced.
“I want to be clear that both my wife and I are innocent of these allegations,” Cuellar said in May 2024.
“Before I took any 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.”
Cuellar represents a largely Hispanic district and has described himself as a moderate Democrat.
He has broken with his party on several issues, including immigration enforcement, and criticized Joe Biden’s approach to the border.
He also objected when some House Democrats opposed deporting a suspected MS-13 member earlier in the year.
Cuellar supported multiple Republican-backed proposals, including those related to migrant-related crime, women’s athletics, and the bipartisan agreement that reopened the federal government following the 2025 shutdown.
