If we believe that corruption will always exist in our government then we must ask, and know, what is an acceptable amount of corruption. Factors include: the amount of cash or other value, how painful it is to part with the asset, and how much benefit there is in receiving the asset.

Corruption often involves the crime of bribery, and with that, cash. Of greater importance to the above criteria, and often overlooked, is the impact on the victim.

Congressman Henry Cuellar, a Democrat from Texas, and his wife, were accused by the Department of Justice in 2024 of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from Azerbaijan and its dictator Ilham Aliyev from 2014 through at least 2021. They were also accused of conspiracy, bribery, wire fraud, money laundering, and acting as a foreign agent. If convicted, they would die in federal prison.

Azerbaijan is one of the most oppressive countries on the planet. It is also flush with oil, and oil money for whitewashing its filthy reputation.  Azerbaijan is, for all intents and purposes, North Korea with oil. Both North Korea and Azerbaijan occupy the lowest category for press freedom. They both occupy the lowest category for people’s access to political rights and civil liberties. Azerbaijan ranks lower than North Korea for free and fair elections.

The $600,000 cited by the Department of Justice is enough to catch the attention of any investigative body. The bribe money given is chump change for a dictatorship gushing with oil revenue and as much as it is nothing to Azerbaijan’s strongman Aliyev, it is a life-altering amount for a congressman whose annual salary is around $200,000.

Cuellar’s Victims: Armenians, US Taxpayers

Each corruption case has a victim; sometimes two. With Cuellar, the first victim is the American citizen whose expectation of, and trust in, loyal representation is now compromised. When a citizen casts a vote for a representative, ranging from the lowest local to the highest federal, that citizen demands that the representative work for him, and nobody else – Contracts 101. Cuellar breached that pact with his constituents, and by extension the entire citizenry, by simultaneously working for Aliyev and his brutal regime.

Cuellar’s other victim is Armenia. In exchange for cash, Cuellar used his elected office to push pro-Azeri legislation in Congress, and otherwise promote Azerbaijan in a favorable light, with the effect of placing Armenia, a genocide-survivor state surrounded on two sides by the unrepentant genocide perpetrators, in an increasingly vulnerable position. Each time Cuellar helped Azerbaijan, he put Armenia’s continued existence into greater jeopardy.

Ripping the Veil Off Trump’s Intentions

President Trump, in his quest to secure a Noble Peace Prize for solving the world’s most intractable problems, summoned Aliyev and Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to the White House this past August for a group hug. In a matter of hours, the animus between Armenia and Azerbaijan was solved, at least on paper.

However, Azerbaijan continues to occupy swaths of Armenia proper (this, after blockading the Armenians of Artsakh (FKA Nagorno Karabagh] for nearly a year and then using Israeli weapons to drive them out of their homeland of over 2,000 years) and is fortifying its border with more troops and artillery placements. Aliyev artfully and ominously refers to Armenia as “Western Azerbaijan” (he hosts conferences on the subject and invites western leaders) and insists that Azeris who left Armenia when the Soviet Union collapsed be allowed to return.

No mention is been made of the return of Armenians who were forced out of Azerbaijan at gunpoint. The reason is that not only does Aliyev and turkic Azerbaijan not want Christian Armenians in Azerbaijan, they don’t want Armenians in Armenia — when the latter happens the Armenian Genocide, begun in 1915 by Turkey and put on hold during the Soviet years, will have come to fruition. With that, one of the oldest races on the planet and the first nation to accept Christianity will be relegated to a footnote in history books. Corruption has a price, and a cost.

Trump is Azerbaijan’s Stooge

The official line is that the Cuellar daughters wrote a heartfelt letter to President Trump begging that their poor papa be pardoned. However, with Azerbaijan always in need of a stooge to polish its tarnished image, there is no doubt that Azeri back channels put the Trump White House on notice that if their boy Cuellar was not released from Department of Justice scrutiny, they would back out of the “peace deal.” No peace deal means no Peace Prize. President Trump pardoned the Cuellars in early December.

It’s bad enough that the Cuellar charges, which would have easily been proven in court, are now dropped. Not only has Trump failed to sufficiently drain the swamp, he has allowed scum to stay. The problem with scum is that it grows fast. Less than a week after the pardon, Anna Paulina Luna, a back bench Member of Congress from Florida, introduced legislation to provide assistance to Azerbaijan.

Congressional corruption usually ends badly for those involved – Abscam, Jim Traficant, “Duke” Cunningham, et al. But corruption scandals never end badly for the participants when Turkey or Azerbaijan are involved. Turkey has had its finger in U.S. policy, both foreign and domestic, stretching back nearly a century, including having then-Speaker Hastert on its payroll, which received no press.

And now Azerbaijan, its lackey satellite state with its caviar diplomacy (read: corruption), is involved. Congressional corruption involving Turkey and Azerbaijan never ends badly, because it never ends. In fact, as Cuellar and Luna will attest, it is rewarded and encouraged.

The Armenian Nation is not so irrelevant that its future can be bought for six figures. No price can be put on that nation. But once she is gone, it is forever. The ghosts of Kharpert, Bitlis, Julfa, and now Stepanakert stand witness to the hatred, greed, and duplicity of depraved hearts and shallow consciences that brought about the Armenian Genocide and continue to propel bad actors like Henry Cuellar. The American citizen and the Armenian Nation both deserve better.

About the Author

Marshall Moushigian is an attorney and financial adviser in Fresno.