The Justice Department released an indictment against Texas Democrat Rep. Henry Cuellar on criminal charges, multiple media outlets reported on Friday.

Here is what we know.

Who is Henry Cuellar?

Cuellar is serving his tenth term in the U.S. House of Representatives for Texas’ 28th congressional district, which includes the cities of Laredo, Rio Grande City, and San Antonio.

According to a biography, Cuellar was born in Laredo, Texas, where he earned his associate degree from Laredo Community College before enrolling at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He later earned several postgraduate degrees in Texas before he began practicing law in 1981. He also served as a Texas State Representative and Texas Secretary of State before becoming a U.S. Congressman.

He and his wife, Imelda, and two daughters live in Laredo.

What is Rep. Cuellar being investigated for?

NBC News was the first to report about the expected indictment, stating that Cuellar and his wife are being charged with bribery and money laundering in connection to an Azerbaijani oil and gas company.

NBC News reported that “The Cuellars allegedly accepted roughly $600,000 in bribes from the two foreign entities in exchange for the congressman performing official acts.”

The FBI executed a search warrant at Cuellar’s home and campaign office in 2022 but it is unclear if any potential federal charges are related to the raid. Cuellar serves as a co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus.

His lawyer Joshua Berman said in April that he was informed by the feds that Cuellar was not the focus of the investigation.

What did Rep. Cuellar say about the indictment?

“I want to be clear that both my wife and I are innocent of these allegations,” Cuellar said in a statement to USA TODAY, indicating his wife Imelda, is also involved.

“Proactively sought legal advice from the House Ethics Committee, who gave me more than one written opinion, along with an additional opinion from a national law firm,” he said. “Furthermore, we requested a meeting with the Washington D.C. prosecutors to explain the facts and they refused to discuss the case with us or to hear our side.”

The National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm of House Republicans, swiftly responded to reports of an imminent criminal indictment and urged House Democrats to call on their colleague to resign.

“Henry Cuellar does not put Texas first, he puts himself first,” Delanie Bomar, a spokesperson for the NRCC said in a statement. “If his colleagues truly believe in putting ‘people over politics,’ they will call on him to resign. If not – they are hypocrites whose statements about public service aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.”

— USA TODAY reporter Ken Tran contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Who is Rep. Henry Cuellar, the Texas Democrat indicted by DOJ?