U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, speaks during a 2022 appearance in Zapata County. Credit: Wikimedia Commons / USDA Media by Lance Cheung
Scandal-mired U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, has become the latest beneficiary of President Donald Trump’s controversial pardon machine.
Trump announced Cuellar’s pardon Wednesday morning via Truth Social, blaming the South Texas congressman’s legal woes on a favorite target of the current White House: former President Joe Biden.
Cuellar, whose district also includes a portion of San Antonio, faced federal charges of bribery, money laundering and conspiracy related to his alleged interactions with the oil-rich government of Azerbaijan. A 2022 FBI raid on his Laredo home and office drew national media attention.
However, in a post liberated from the confines of conventional grammar and capitalization, Trump claimed that Biden unfairly turned the Justice Department against the 11-term congressman because he dared to speak out against the administration’s border policy.
“Sleepy Joe went after the Congressman, and even the Congressman’s wonderful wife, Imelda, simply for speaking the TRUTH,” Trump wrote. “It is unAmerican [sic] and, as I previously stated, the Radical Left Democrats are a complete and total threat to Democracy! They will attack, rob, lie, cheat, destroy, and decimate anyone who dares to oppose their Far Left Agenda, an Agenda that, if left unchecked, will obliterate our magnificent Country.”
Trump concluded: “Henry, I don’t know you, but you can finally sleep well tonight — Your [sic] nightmare is finally over!”
Bribery allegations
The feds last year charged Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, with accepting nearly $600,000 in bribes from two foreign entities as part of a purported influence-peddling scheme that ran from 2014 until at least 2021, documents show.
Cuellar has denied that he and his wife did anything wrong, adding that his actions were “consistent with the actions of many of my colleagues and in the interest of the American people.”
Despite the Cuellars’ legal woes, the moderate Democrat won his 2024 reelection by nearly 6 points, even as his district swung to Trump by 7. His trial on the federal charges was set to start in September, but a federal judge shifted the date to April, putting it a few months before the midterms.
Change in tone
After the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Cuellar played a key role in attempting to remove Trump from office via the 25th Amendment.
However, Cuellar his shifted his tone about Trump in the wake of his legal troubles.
After attending the president’s November 2024 inauguration, Cuellar fired off a tweet calling it a “privilege” to be invited and wishing the incoming administration “nothing but the best.” He also cast votes backing Trump’s nonprofit killer bill and the Republican-led mass deportation proposal known as the Laken Riley Act.
Trump has drawn criticism for repeatedly using his presidential powers to grant clemency to friends, financial backers, political allies and right-wing culture warriors.
So far in his second term, Trump has pardoned disgraced former New York congressman George Santos, ally and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and nearly 1,600 people facing charges or being punished for their alleged roles in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Despite attempting to justify his administration’s military strikes on Venezuelan fishing boats as an attempt to fight drug smuggling, Trump last week pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who faced a 45-year conviction on cocaine trafficking charges.
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