A year after the FBI ransacked Henry Cuellar’s home, no arrests, no answers.

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WASHINGTON. Last January, FBI agents raided US Rep. Henry Cuellar’s home and office in Laredo, leaving with a computer and plastic containers and bags of personal items. This stunning spectacle happened just a few weeks before a tough primary election.

The raid cast a shadow over a competitive election year for the longtime Democratic congressman who defended his seat against a progressive in the March primary and then a well-funded and coordinated Republican effort to change his seat in November. Cuellar emerged largely unscathed – winning his November re-election to a 10th term in a landslide.

A year later, there were no arrests or charges in this case. Cuellar claims he was never the subject of an investigation and will eventually be acquitted. And the public remains largely in the dark about what prompted the investigation.

“There was no wrongdoing on my part,” Cuellar said in a statement to The Texas Tribune. “My goal has remained the same since day one in office: delivering results for Texans throughout my county.”

Cuellar declined to be interviewed. The FBI declined to comment on this story.

Legal experts say the lack of response or information from federal authorities a year later should not be interpreted as either an excuse or a reflection of the guilt of anyone involved in the case.

Experts have cited multiple reasons for the ongoing silence around the case: the FBI search may not have turned up any evidence, the indictments may have been closed, the case may still be moving forward, or there may have been delays because law enforcement did not want to intervene in the recent November incident. elections.

“The government moved forward at that point, but it’s not surprising that we didn’t see any other announcements or any other information that went public,” said Edward Loya Jr., a Dallas-based lawyer and former federal prosecutor.

“It’s too early to draw any firm conclusions, one way or another,” Loya said. “From this we can understand that the investigation appears to be ongoing and the government has somehow not made a decision on how it plans to proceed.”

John Basch, a defense attorney who previously worked for the U.S. Department of Justice and served as U.S. Attorney for Texas, said the Department of Justice is not required to publicly announce that a case is closed or that a matter related to the case is pending. goal.

“If they get new information that causes them to reopen the investigation, they won’t want to tell anyone, ‘No, we’re never going to look into this again,'” Basch said. “But often they say to the defense they were talking to, ‘Hey, it’s over.’

Cuellar’s lawyer has repeatedly stated that the Justice Department informed them that the congressman was not the subject of an investigation.

Gregg Sofer, attorney for Husch Blackwell and former US Attorney for the Western District of Texas, said the federal government is not required to publicly confirm that Cuellar is not a target.

“There is pressure to do something like this when a politician is involved,” but this is not a typical procedure, he said.

The search also had no effect on Cuellar’s political career. He defeated his main progressive rival, Jessica Cisneros, with 289 votes. He also successfully defeated Republican challenger Cassie Garcia in South Texas’ 28th district in November.

While Cuellar is currently awaiting a committee appointment in the new Republican-controlled Congress, he previously served on the Appropriations Committee, which is highly regarded in Congress. He was also a deputy to former U.S. House Majority Representative James Clyburn.

Cuellar calls himself a moderate and has been known to cross the party aisle to vote Republican. In 2021, he was the only Democrat to vote against a bill enshrining abortion rights at the federal level. The bill passed the House of Representatives but died in the Senate.

The fact that the FBI took such explosive action last year against an incumbent so close to the election reinforced initial speculation about whether Cuellar was in the hot seat.

Sofer said the raid “was very unusual to do so close to an election.”

“I have to think there was some sort of operational need for this,” Sofer said. “What did they think, if they don’t act then, they can never act.”

After the raid, ABC News reported that a grand jury was looking for records about Cuellar, his wife, and one of Cuellar’s campaign staff regarding ties to Azerbaijan. Cuellar is part of the Azerbaijan faction in Congress and regularly campaigns for the oil-rich country.

In August, The Texas Tribune, along with the Associated Press, Gannett, Gray Media Group and Hearst, filed a request with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas to open a search warrant used in an FBI raid. The newspapers also requested a search warrant application, an affidavit and any other documents relevant to the case.