When tensions over disputed territory in the Caucasus region erupted in the summer of 2020, Azerbaijan’s high-dollar Washington lobbying squad was quick to blame neighboring Armenia and highlight its connections to Russia.
Unbeknownst to members of Congress, Azerbaijan had an inside man who was working closely with Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Washington at the time on a parallel line of attack, according to text messages released by federal prosecutors.
Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat now accused of accepting bribes and acting as a foreign agent in a years-long scheme, indicated in a text that he was planning a legislative maneuver to try to strip Armenia of funds because it hosted Russian military bases.
The Azerbaijani ambassador responded enthusiastically.
“Your amendment is more timely than ever,” the ambassador, Elin Suleymanov, wrote to Mr. Cuellar. “It’s about the Russian presence there,” added Suleymanov, who referred to the congressman as “boss.”
Cuellar’s legislative tactics did not go very far. But at the time of the text message exchange, his family had accepted at least $360,000 from companies controlled by the Azerbaijani government since December 2014, according to a federal indictment unsealed in Houston on Friday.
The 54-page indictment highlights the importance of U.S. policymaking to foreign interests and the lengths they will go to try to shape them to their benefit, despite high risks and sometimes questionable results.
The indictment accuses Cuellar, 68, and his wife, Imelda, 67, of accepting bribes, money laundering and conspiracy to violate foreign lobbying laws in connection with efforts on behalf of the Azerbaijan government and a City bank. from Mexico that paid them at least $238,390.
The Cuellars pleaded not guilty Friday and were released after each posted $100,000 bail. In a statement before the indictment, Cuellar declared his innocence and suggested that the House Ethics Committee had authorized his financial activity. Azerbaijan’s embassy did not respond to a request for comment.
The charges against the couple suggest that the Justice Department is expanding its efforts to crack down on foreign influence campaigns, despite recent high-profile setbacks. Juries and judges have rejected cases involving unregistered foreign lobbying by political figures with close ties to former Presidents Barack Obama and Donald J. Trump.
The indictment is the second in recent months accusing a sitting member of Congress of violating a ban on lawmakers acting as foreign agents. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and his wife were hit with a series of charges starting in October, accusing them of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, including gold bars, to help the governments of Egypt and Qatar. . Menendez and his wife pleaded not guilty.
Beyond the payments Menendez and Cuellar are accused of receiving, Azerbaijan, Egypt and Qatar have spent heavily on traditional Washington lobbying to keep American aid flowing and win support in disputes with their neighbors.
From 2015 through the end of last year, Egypt spent $14.3 million on lobbying and Qatar spent nearly $85.9 million, according to analysis by the nonpartisan website OpenSecrets of disclosures to the Justice Department under the Act. Foreign Agents Registry, or FARA. The disclosures do not include donations to think tanks and other expenses that wealthy foreign governments use to try to generate goodwill.
Azerbaijan spent nearly $9.2 million on lobbying in that time, according to FARA documents. The branches of government retained about 20 companies during that time, including those led by former Gov. Haley Barbour, R-Mississippi, and former Rep. Bob Livingston, a Louisiana Republican who served as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. of Representatives. Lobbying efforts also involved companies run by Democrats, such as former Biden adviser Larry Rasky, who died in 2020, and fundraiser Vincent A. Roberti.
Azerbaijan’s goals included gaining support for the reintegration of the Nagorno-Karabakh territory into the Lesser Caucasus, which has been under dispute with Armenia for decades. (Azerbaijan took full control of the territory in September.) Azerbaijan also wanted Congress to repeal a ban on U.S. aid imposed in 1992 during the first Nagorno-Karabakh war.
While the United States has continually issued waivers to the ban since 2001, Azerbaijanis consider the durability of the underlying ban “some kind of insult and injustice,” said Richard Kauzlarich, who served as ambassador to Azerbaijan during the Clinton administration.
“I have seen no signs of return on investment on issues that are important to Azerbaijan in terms of its lobbying efforts,” Mr. Kauzlarich said. He attributed this partly to continuing concerns about human rights abuses by the Azerbaijani government and partly to the lack of an organized and active diaspora like the one that has lobbied for Armenian causes.
“No amount of money will be able to offset the turnout in California and Massachusetts and other places where Armenian Americans live, are active and vote,” he said.
While politicians in Europe have been accused of accepting gifts and bribes from Azerbaijani and Qatari officials, prosecutors’ claims about payments to Menendez and Cueller add a new twist to the world of underground influence campaigns in Washington.
Lawmakers were in privileged positions to help foreign governments. Menendez was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, while Cuellar served on the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the State Department’s budget.
Following their respective indictments, Menendez resigned as chairman and Cuellar resigned from his position as top Democrat on the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee. Mr. Menendez’s trial is scheduled to begin this month. Both have vowed to remain in office while they contest the charges, and Cuellar has said he intends to continue his re-election campaign.
The Azerbaijani courtship of Cuellar came as oil interests in the country, including the state-owned company that prosecutors say financed payments to the Cuellars, maintained a presence in Texas.
Cuellar and his wife, along with other Texas lawmakers, traveled to Azerbaijan in 2013. He received briefings from high-level government officials and attended a dinner with executives from the state oil company, according to prosecutors. After Cuellar returned, he was recruited by Azerbaijani officials, who began funneling payments to a pair of consulting firms his wife created called IRC Business Solutions and Global Gold Group, according to documents from Texas prosecutors and corporations. .
The Cuellars used the money to pay debts, finance living expenses and make purchases that included a $12,000 personalized robe and a $7,000 down payment on a new car, prosecutors say.
The indictment claims that Imelda Cuellar “performed little or no legitimate work in exchange for the payments.” Instead, “in exchange for the bribe payments, Henry Cuellar agreed to perform official acts and acts in violation of his official duties for the benefit of Azerbaijan and to be and act as an agent of the government of Azerbaijan.”
Among the services prosecutors say Cuellar performed at the behest of the Azerbaijanis was pressuring the Obama administration to take a tougher line against Armenia, trying to insert pro-Azerbaijan language into legislation and committee reports and making that members of his staff urged the State Department. renew the passport of Mr. Suleymanov’s daughter.
Mr. Cuellar’s efforts on behalf of Azerbaijan appear to have had mostly minimal impact. He withdrew the amendment to defund Armenia following objections from an Armenian diaspora group.
“I was going to be ruled out of line so I backed out but they are taking credit ha ha,” Mr. Cuellar texted Mr. Suleymanov.
The ambassador responded “they take credit for everything!”
After the accusation against Cuellar was revealed, the group Armenian Assembly of America called for “a broader investigation regarding these charges and who else might be linked to Azerbaijan’s corrupt modes of operation.”