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Turns out Democratic politicians can be giant HYPOCRITES too, how predictable

Turns out Democratic politicians can be giant HYPOCRITES too, how predictable

Democratic Representative Henry Cueller is being charged with bribery unlawful foreign influence and bribery.
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Texas Representative Henry Cueller has been charged with bribery, unlawful foreign influence, and bribery.

We're usually reporting on the latest terrible or embarrassing thing Republican politicians have done, but today it's a Democrat who is being a giant hypocrite, and… we're not surprised. Politicians are going to politician.

Democratic Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar has been charged with taking part in a plot to commit "bribery, unlawful foreign influence, and money laundering" by the Department of Justice, according to Rolling Stone's report on an indictment that was unsealed on Friday.

That's right, the Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee — you know, the group in charge of Homeland Security's budget — is being brought up on charges for doing incredibly illegal things with money.

The Justice Department has accused both Cueller and his wife Imelda Cuellar of accepting "approximately $600,000 in bribes from two foreign entities: an oil and gas company wholly owned and controlled by the Government of Azerbaijan, and a bank headquartered in Mexico City."

We'd like to say the hypocrisy of being the head of an appropriations committee and a member of Congress — which controls the government's purse strings — while also allegedly taking part in a bribery and money laundering scheme with a foreign government is shocking, but things like this have happened so many times now, it's almost like power corrupts or something.

The couple's list of charges is a mile long and includes "two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery of a federal official; two counts of bribery of a federal official; two counts of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud; two counts of violating the ban on public officials acting as agents of a foreign principal; one count of conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering; and five counts of money laundering," Rolling Stone reports.

The charges are so egregious that if convicted on all counts, both Cueller and his wife could be sentenced to a maximum of more than 200 years in prison.

"I want to be clear that both my wife and I are innocent of these allegations. Everything I have done in Congress has been to serve the people of South Texas," Cuellar said in a statement. "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. The actions I took in Congress were consistent with the actions of many of my colleagues and in the interest of the American people."

He went on to say that he has no plans to pull out of his congressional race, "Let me be clear, I'm running for re-election and will win this November."

It would be wonderful if it turned out that the Department of Justice has the facts wrong and Cueller is innocent, but Congress' recent history of bad deeds makes us think otherwise. Last May, Republican Rep. George Santos was ousted from his position in the House and indicted on charges of wire fraud, money laundering, and lying to Congress; then in September, Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez was charged with conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, and conspiracy to commit extortion because he and his wife, Nadine, allegedly accepted bribes and unlawfully aided the governments of Egypt and Qatar.

If we went back further — think the Nixon era — the list would be much longer.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that Cueller will no longer be the Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee until after the case is resolved.

The TLDR? Politicians are the worst. But at least we have the opportunity to vote in new members of Congress in November.

30 Years of Out100Out / Advocate Magazine - Jonathan Groff and Wayne Brady

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Ariel Messman-Rucker

Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.

Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.