House Ethics Panel Will Investigate Cuellar on Bribery Charges

The House Ethics Committee has launched an investigation into Representative Henry Cuellar, Democrat of Texas, over allegations that he accepted bribes and committed misconduct in office, the panel said on Wednesday.

Mr. Cuellar was indicted this month on federal charges that he participated in a yearslong, $600,000 bribery scheme involving Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank. After a member is charged criminally, House rules require that the Ethics Committee decide whether Congress should also investigate the lawmaker’s conduct.

The panel voted unanimously to establish a four-member investigative subcommittee to determine whether Mr. Cuellar “solicited or accepted bribes, gratuities or improper gifts; acted as a foreign agent; violated federal money laundering laws; misused his official position for private gain; and/or made false statements or omissions on public disclosure statements filed with the House.”

Representative Michael Guest, Republican of Mississippi and the chairman of the ethics panel, will also lead the subcommittee scrutinizing Mr. Cuellar’s conduct. Representative Glenn F. Ivey of Maryland will be the top Democrat.

The Ethics Committee has often chosen to halt its investigative work while federal prosecutors pursue a member of Congress, to avoid getting in the way of the Justice Department’s work. But recently it has adopted a more aggressive stance.

After the panel released a scathing report digging into the conduct of George Santos, a serial fabulist who at the time was representing New York as a Republican, the House voted to expel him.

The Ethics Committee “is aware of the risks associated with dual investigations and is in communication with the Department of Justice to mitigate the potential risks while