On Wednesday, federal agents were spotted at the home and the Laredo, Texas office of Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX), as the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Unit, which investigates bribery and government integrity, is investigating him.
According to a recent report, “Documents obtained by Fox News show that in 2013, Cuellar and his wife took a $25,000 trip to Turkey and Azerbaijan which included a stay at a luxury hotel and was sponsored by the Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians.”
In 2013, then-U.S. Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham went on a swanky trip along with nine other members of Congress to Baku on the Caspian Sea sponsored by the Azerbaijani government masked as the nonprofit corporations Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians (TCAE) and the Assembly of the Friends of Azerbaijan (AFAZ).
Reports indicate that the lawmakers and their staff, including Lujan Grisham, received hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of travel expenses, luxury goods, such as scarves, crystal tea sets, gold-plated plates, turquoise earrings, and rugs, among other valuable items. Lujan Grisham did not disclose these gifts to the Ethics Committee, despite these luxury goods being above the threshold for disclosed gifts.
The rugs alone were valued at $2,500 to $10,000 — far above the $350 threshold set by the Ethics Committee. At the time, she claimed she did not disclose these luxurious gifts because she “did not think they were particularly valuable” and she reportedly said they were “unattractive.”
She took her fiancé, Manuel “Manny” Cordova, on the trip but paid $4,980 for his flights.
Lujan Grisham met with the Azerbaijan America Alliance on May 31, 2013 “regarding Azerbaijan-U.S. relations,” according to U.S. House lobbying reports.
Lujan Grisham has continued her luxurious lifestyle, if not paid by the Azerbaijani government, the New Mexico taxpayers have shelled out tens of thousands for her expensive habits, including expensive tequila and $200/lb Wagyu steaks. Throughout the pandemic, Lujan Grisham has broken her lockdown orders to buy lavish jewelry while New Mexicans were forced to stand in bread lines during the holidays due to her strict 75-person capacity limit in grocery stores.
Recently, upon arrival back from her “climate change” excursion to Scotland, Lujan Grisham made the taxpayers foot the bill for a lavish dinner party which included “[s]ous vide and butter-basted beef tenderloin with roasted vegetable Napoleon and rosemary red wine demiglace.” Dessert included a “chocolate pear tartlet with hazelnut crisp,” with the meal totaling $150 per guest.
As federal investigators probe Rep. Henry Cuellar, it is unclear if more will come out about more alleged corruption by Lujan Grisham, who directly received tens of thousands in luxury gifts from the Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians — a front for the government of Azerbaijan.
Gov. Lujan Grisham’s office was contacted for comment but the Piñon Post has yet to receive a response.