Trump Pardons Texas Democrat Cuellar After Biden DOJ Indictment Over Foreign Bribes
President Donald Trump issued a full and unconditional pardon Wednesday to Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar and his wife Imelda, blasting what he called a “Biden-led weaponization” of the Justice Department to punish dissent — even from within the Democratic Party.
Cuellar, 70, was indicted last year on sweeping charges of bribery, money laundering, and acting as a foreign agent, stemming from $600,000 in alleged payments from Azerbaijan’s state oil company and a Mexican bank. The charges carried a potential de facto life sentence.
Trump, who made the announcement on Truth Social, said Cuellar’s only “crime” was speaking out against President Joe Biden’s open-border agenda.
“For years, the Biden Administration weaponized the Justice System against their Political Opponents,” Trump wrote. “One of the clearest examples of this was when Crooked Joe used the FBI and DOJ to ‘take out’ a member of his own Party after Highly Respected Congressman Henry Cuellar bravely spoke out against Open Borders.”
Trump noted that the DOJ not only targeted Cuellar, but his wife as well. “Sleepy Joe went after the Congressman, and even the Congressman’s wonderful wife, Imelda, simply for speaking the TRUTH,” he said. “Because of these facts, and others, I am hereby announcing my full and unconditional PARDON.”
Cuellar responded with praise for Trump and announced he will seek re-election as a Democrat. “I want to thank President Trump for his tremendous leadership,” Cuellar said in a statement. “This pardon gives us a clean slate. The noise is gone. The work remains. And I intend to meet it head on.”
Despite voting to impeach Trump twice during his first term, Cuellar had become an unlikely ally on immigration in recent years. As early as March 2021, he criticized Biden’s handling of the southern border and demanded a presidential visit, which didn’t occur until nearly two years later.
Cuellar’s criticisms of Biden’s immigration failures only intensified as his South Texas district bore the brunt of the crisis. The FBI raided Cuellar’s home in 2022, but he still managed to win re-election, fending off a far-left primary challenge from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-backed Jessica Cisneros.
According to prosecutors, Cuellar and his wife accepted bribes through “sham consulting contracts” and front companies controlled by Imelda Cuellar, who allegedly performed no actual work. In exchange, Cuellar allegedly used his position on the House Appropriations Committee to influence U.S. policy on behalf of foreign interests.
Trump, who has himself been indicted by Biden’s Justice Department, has increasingly taken aim at what he describes as the political weaponization of federal agencies. His pardon of Cuellar is the latest example of that push — though not every Democrat has received such favor. Trump notably refused clemency for disgraced former Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), now serving an 11-year sentence for acting as an unregistered agent of Egypt.
Trump did, however, pardon former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich in 2020, another Democrat prosecuted under what Trump viewed as overzealous political charges. In Cuellar’s case, the decision sends a sharp message to Biden, the DOJ, and even to skeptical Democrats: dissent will not go unanswered.