WASHINGTON — The federal indictment of Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, casts a spotlight on efforts by foreign governments to influence lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Cuellar is accused of accepting bribes from an oil and gas company controlled by the government of Azerbaijan, as well as a Mexican bank, in exchange for trying to influence U.S. foreign policy.

The indictment filed against the South Texas Democrat alleges he tried to help Azerbaijan, an oil-rich county on the boundary between Europe and Asia.

“It’s also a post-Soviet country where the United States has an interest in the question of whether it becomes a dictatorship or a democracy, whether it’s friendly to Western countries, open for business with Western investors and so forth,” said Stephen Sestanovich, the George F. Kennan senior fellow for Russian and Eurasian studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

A focus of Azerbaijan’s lobbying efforts in Congress involves a decades-long dispute with Armenia over territory that both countries claim as their own. Some experts said historically the U.S. has been interested in upholding Armenian interests because of the population in the U.S.

“For the United States, it is a balancing act between domestic politics, international politics, and trying to also ensure that the (transcontinental region) Caucasus remain as quiet as possible, become as stable as possible, because you have these other actors  — Russia, Turkey, Iran  — in the region,” said Jamsheed Choksy, a distinguished professor at Indiana University. “U.S. interest is to make sure that we can have a foothold in the Caucasus to keep an eye on Iran and on Russia.”

According to the 54-page indictment, Azerbaijani officials knew Cuellar served on the House Appropriations Subcommittee that oversees the State Department. The Justice Department alleges that those officials recruited Cuellar and his wife shortly after they took a trip to Turkey and Azerbaijan in January 2013.

One Azerbaijan diplomat allegedly wrote in an email, “[t]he good news is that Cuellar was just in Baku.” Baku is the capital of Azerbaijan.

Federal prosecutors allege that in the following year Azerbaijani officials began funneling bribe payments through sham contracts with shell companies owned by Cuellar’s wife. 

The prosecutors accuse Cuellar of taking positions against Azerbaijan’s rival, Armenia.

According to the indictment, in 2016, Cuellar wrote a letter to Obama administration officials accusing Armenia of being a proxy for Russia. In 2020, as tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia escalated, Cuellar said he would try to strip funding for countries that host Russian bases, which include Armenia.

It is unclear how effective Cuellar’s alleged services were.

Cuellar’s indictment comes shortly after the Justice Department brought a new indictment against Sen. Bob Menendez, D-New Jersey, and his wife on charges of accepting bribes to help the governments of Egypt and Qatar.

“Now that this is the second member of Congress who has been charged with being an unregistered foreign agent, after that not really ever happening before, I think that is a significant development and does reflect additional scrutiny and focus on foreign influence campaigns,” said Howard Master, a former federal prosecutor and a partner and counsel to the CEO of Nardello & Co.

Cuellar denied any wrongdoing. In a statement, he said before he took any action he sought legal advice from the House Ethics Committee. Cuellar and his wife pleaded not guilty.