Pardoned Dem Rep. Henry Cuellar Claims Biden DOJ Attempted To Bribe, Entrap Him

Democratic Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar alleged Sunday that officials linked to the Biden administration’s Department of Justice attempted to bribe and entrap him during a failed undercover sting operation.

The Department of Justice indicted Cuellar in early May 2024, alleging he accepted roughly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijani government-linked oil and gas company and a Mexican bank in exchange for steering U.S. foreign policy in Azerbaijan’s favor. During an interview on “Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo,” Cuellar said federal officials set up what he described as a fake company and financial account set up to funnel money 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 a sting operation where they were trying to entrap me, and that failed.”

Bartiromo pressed Cuellar on who allegedly orchestrated the effort, asking if he believed Biden’s Department of Justice stood behind it. Cuellar said the materials provided to his legal team traced the operation back to officials in Washington.

“We got all the testimony, the 302s, the sting operation. They set up a false company, 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 claimed. “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.”