Sanford Nowlin
U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar speaks throughout an look in San Antonio.
This story first appeared in NOTUS, a publication from the nonprofit, nonpartisan Allbritton Journalism Institute.
A prime aide to Rep. Henry Cuellar noticed a hefty wage increase after he started appearing as a intermediary for alleged Mexican bribes, a overview of marketing campaign finance and congressional spending data present.
Colin Strother — a longtime Texas political marketing consultant and a detailed confidant of the Texas Democrat — was paid greater than $25,000 out of Cuellar’s taxpayer-funded congressional expense finances in 2016 and 2017, spending data present. Three individuals accustomed to the congressman’s Home workers don’t recall Strother performing substantial work for the workplace or having any job title throughout that point.
“It’s typical for congressional workplaces to have outdoors advisers that weigh in however aren’t on workers,” one supply mentioned. “I wasn’t conscious he was being paid on the time.”
These outdoors advisers are sometimes paid out of marketing campaign accounts fairly than taxpayer-funded congressional budgets. At the moment, Strother was individually paid by Cuellar’s political marketing campaign. Strother’s pay from Cuellar’s political marketing campaign additionally climbed steadily: from $2,000 within the 2014 election cycle to about $20,000 within the 2016 cycle, to greater than $34,000 in 2018, and once more climbing to greater than $65,000 within the 2020 marketing campaign.
Strother pleaded responsible to serving to funnel cash from a Mexican financial institution to Cuellar via a fancy monetary association designed to hide the supply of the funding — an association that the Division of Justice alleges started in 2016. He’s cooperating within the federal investigation into his former boss. Cuellar pleaded not responsible to a raft of great federal bribery, cash laundering and international affect fees.
Strother, who runs his personal consulting agency from a small city outdoors of Austin, started working for the longtime congressman when he first ran for Congress in 2003. FEC data from the 2003-2004 cycle present that Cuellar’s marketing campaign paid Strother a wage, and in 2005, he grew to become Cuellar’s chief of workers.
He and Cuellar had been shut, sources mentioned. One described him as “Cuellar’s whisperer.”
“However one thing didn’t appear proper,” that supply added.
After that preliminary stint, he was out and in of the workplace in spurts, serving in numerous adviser roles. FEC data present that he remained an adviser for Cuellar and was paid throughout every election cycle from 2004 to 2022 via Cuellar’s marketing campaign account. However Strother’s time within the workplace in 2016 and 2017 shocked three sources accustomed to the workplace.
Between December 2016 and November 2017, Strother was paid greater than $26,000 — holding numerous titles akin to “Short-term Worker,” “Half-Time Worker,” “Senior Counsel for Well being” and “Particular Tasks Coordinator.” Two sources with data of the workplace’s interior workings mentioned they didn’t consider Strother’s work would have certified for an workplace wage. In contrast to marketing campaign work, which is paid for by political donations, members obtain a taxpayer-funded allowance to rent legislative workers.
One supply mentioned Strother would “sometimes” present recommendation, however “nothing constant.”
One other supply remembered Strother usually involving himself within the workplace however was likewise shocked he was paid.
“He’s the kind of man who would do type of what a marketing consultant does, which is like, they don’t do any precise work, after which they’d simply chime in with their two cents after which name that good,” they mentioned. “It nonetheless doesn’t make it proper.”
Attorneys representing Cuellar and Strother didn’t reply to NOTUS’ request for remark.
The indictment alleges that in March 2016, Imelda Cuellar, Henry Cuellar’s spouse, started emailing Strother falsified invoices for a sham contract. In December 2016, Strother was introduced on as a “coverage adviser” and paid $4,000.
The indictment says cash flowed from different co-conspirators to Strother usually via 2017, most of which he allegedly handed on to the Cuellars. After that, the DOJ listed solely two specified funds in 2018 and one in 2019 that went to Strother. He was final paid by Cuellar’s workplace in November 2017, although he continued to obtain cash from the congressman’s marketing campaign account.
The Home Ethics Committee introduced Wednesday that it could examine the congressman on the identical grounds.
The committee mentioned it could “decide whether or not Consultant Cuellar solicited or accepted bribes, gratuities, or improper presents; acted as a international agent; violated federal cash laundering legal guidelines; misused his official place for personal acquire; and/or made false statements or omissions on public disclosure statements filed with the Home,” in its announcement of the investigation.
“I respect the work of the Home Ethics Committee,” Cuellar mentioned in an announcement, in response to NBC Information. “As I mentioned on Might third, I’m harmless of those allegations, and the whole lot I’ve achieved in Congress has been to serve the individuals of South Texas.”
Casey Murray, a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow, reported on the bottom in Texas. NOTUS reporter Byron Tau reported from Washington, D.C.
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