Edward J. Loya, Jr., Member of the Firm in the Litigation & Business Disputes and Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practices, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, was quoted in the The Texas Tribune on the timing of an FBI raid conducted close to the March 1 primary election.
Following is an excerpt:
The FBI raid at U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar’s Laredo home made for a damning drama: a swarm of agents descending upon his property with a warrant in hand, emerging later with a computer and plastic bins and bags full of personal belongings.
Those optics aren’t an afterthought for the U.S. Department of Justice. Nor is the timing — which in Cuellar’s case came less than two months before the March 1 primary election. That poor political timing has raised questions […] about why the Justice Department, which had to sign off on such an investigation, didn’t authorize the raid either months before this primary or later in the spring to minimize impact on the election. …
To be sure, it’s possible the investigation may never yield charges.
“We should not presume that a crime has occurred here or that the government is convinced that a crime has occurred,” Edward Loya Jr., a Dallas-based attorney, said in an email. Loya served in the department’s Public Integrity Section, which handles corruption cases across the country.
“All we know for sure is that the government is gathering information it needs to make an assessment of the allegations with which it has been presented,” he added. …
“Given today’s political climate and Congressman Cuellar’s powerful position in Congress, I would be surprised if the Attorney General’s office were not consulted,” Loya said.
