AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A top former aide to U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar and a political and business consultant have agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to help the Democrat congressman from Texas launder more than $200,000 in bribes and to assist prosecutors in a federal criminal investigation, according to court documents unsealed this week.
Colin Strother, Cuellar’s former chief of staff and campaign manager, and Florencia Rendon, a business consultant and former chief of staff for former U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, struck plea deals in March to ensure their cooperation in a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into Cuellar and his wife.
The Cuellars have been charged with accepting nearly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijan-controlled energy company and a bank in Mexico, in exchange for advancing the interests of the country and the bank in the U.S.