Conspiracy

Representative Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat in a crucial swing district, and his wife were charged with participating in a yearslong $600,000 bribery scheme involving Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank, according to a federal indictment unsealed in Houston on Friday.

The accusations against Mr. Cuellar, 68, and his wife Imelda, 67, center on allegations of bribery and money laundering in connection with their efforts on behalf of an oil and gas company owned by Azerbaijan’s leaders as well as an unnamed bank based in Mexico City, according to the 54-page complaint.

Conservative Democrat Rep. Henry Cuellar, who represents a competitive district on the Texas-Mexico border, was charged Friday alongside his wife on allegations that they took nearly $600,000 in foreign bribes, the latest development in a long-running FBI probe examining the congressman’s work with Azerbaijan. 

The Department of Justice indicted Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas on conspiracy and bribery charges Friday. 

Cuellar's wife Imelda has also been indicted in the investigation connected to $600,000 in bribes they allegedly accepted between 2014 and 2021 from an Azerbaijan-based energy company and a bank in Mexico City to advance the former Soviet republic's interests in the U.S. 

Cuellar and his wife have been released on bond, Fox News has confirmed. 

What a farce.

The problem with convicting members of the "western chauvinist" Proud Boys on seditious conspiracy charges is that it wrongly elevates a violent tantrum by a bunch of thugs to the level of an insurrection, and it lets officials who prosecute them puff themselves up as saviors of the republic. Worse, the case took liberties with a statute that is probably best forgotten to arrive at its conclusion when normal criminal law could have punished rioters without putting the criminal justice system through contortions.

Three members of the Oath Keepers and a fourth person associated with the far-right militia group were convicted of seditious conspiracy by a Washington, DC, jury on Monday for their role in the January 6, 2021, insurrection.

The four men – Roberto Minuta, Joseph Hackett, David Moerschel and Edward Vallejo – were accused of plotting to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral college victory, a conspiracy that culminated in the attack on the US Capitol.

Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon arrived in court in New York on Thursday to face fresh charges related to a charity that was supposed to use private funds to build the U.S.-Mexico border wall.

Bannon, 68, was indicted on charges including money laundering, scheming to defraud and conspiracy, according to a court filing unsealed Thursday morning.

I spent my last two Saturdays going to two very different QAnon events.

The managing editor of the prominent conservative website RedState has spent months trashing U.S. officials tasked with combating COVID-19, dubbing White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci a “mask nazi,” and intimating that government officials responsible for the pandemic response should be executed.

But that writer, who goes by the pseudonym “streiff,” isn’t just another political blogger. The Daily Beast has discovered that he actually works in the public affairs shop of the very agency that Fauci leads.