WASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump pardoned Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar and his wife in a federal bribery and conspiracy case on Wednesday, citing what he called a \u201cweaponized\u201d justice system.<\/p>\n
Trump, who has argued that his own legal troubles were a partisan witch hunt, said on social media without presenting evidence that Cuellar and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, were prosecuted because the congressman had been critical of President Joe Biden\u2019s immigration policies.<\/p>\n
Trump, a Republican, said in a social media post that Cuellar \u201cbravely spoke out against Open Borders\u201d and accused Biden, a Democrat, of going after the congressman and his wife \u201cfor speaking the TRUTH.\u201d<\/p>\n
Federal authorities had charged Cuellar and his wife with accepting thousands of dollars in exchange for the congressman advancing the interests of an Azerbaijan-controlled energy company and a bank in Mexico. Cuellar is accused of agreeing to influence legislation favorable to Azerbaijan and deliver a pro-Azerbaijan speech on the floor of the U.S. House.<\/p>\n
Cuellar has said he and his wife are innocent. The couple\u2019s trial had been set to begin next April.<\/p>\n
\u201cHenry, I don\u2019t know you, but you can sleep well tonight,\u201d Trump wrote in his social media post announcing the pardon. \u201cYour nightmare is finally over!\u201d<\/p>\n
Cuellar thanks Trump for the pardon<\/p>\n
Cuellar, who spoke to reporters outside his congressional office on Wednesday, thanked Trump in a brief statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the facts have been clear about this, but I would also say I want to thank God for standing during this very difficult time with my family and I,” he said. “Now we can get back to work. Nothing has changed. We will continue working hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cuellar was asked if he was changing parties and said, \u201cNo, like I said, nothing has changed.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Biden did not respond to messages seeking comment.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Constitution gives the president broad power to grand pardons for federal crimes. The pardons don\u2019t erase a recipient\u2019s criminal record but can be seen as act of mercy or justice, often in cases that further public welfare.<\/p>\n
Trump’s pardons this year have included a string of unlikely beneficiaries who are boldfaced names and frequently politically aligned with the president. He pardoned dozens of Republicans accused of participating in his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden. He gave clemency to all of 1,500-plus people charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. He’s also pardoned a former Republican governor of Connecticut, an ex-GOP congressman and reality TV stars who had been convicted of cheating banks and evading taxes.<\/p>\n
In addition to Cuellar, Trump on Wednesday also pardoned Timothy J. Leiweke, a veteran of the sports and entertainment industry who co-founded Oak View Group.<\/p>\n
Leiweke was indicted in July \u2014 by Trump’s own Justice Department \u2014 for, as federal prosecutors put it at the time, \u201cOrchestrating a conspiracy to rig the bidding process” for a university arena in Austin, Texas. Leiweke had pled not guilty but received what Trump called \u201ca full and conditional pardon\u201d in a clemency statement that didn’t include details on why the president was reversing the case.<\/p>\n
Cuellar’s daughters sought a pardon for him<\/p>\n
In Trump\u2019s social media post, he included a copy of a letter that Cuellar\u2019s two daughters, Christina and Catherine, had sent to him on Nov. 12 asking that he pardon their parents.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you and your family faced your own challenges, we understood that pain in a very human way,” Cuellar\u2019s daughters wrote in their letter. “We watched from afar through the eyes of daughters who knew what it felt like to see parents under fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cuellar later told reporters, \u201cI know that my daughters sent a letter, but letters are sent not knowing what\u2019s going to happen on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of Henry Cuellar\u2019s lawyers, Eric Reed, said Wednesday that his legal team made a \u201cpretty substantive presentation\u201d to the Justice Department several months ago seeking dismissal of the charges. He declined to comment on what specifically Cuellar\u2019s legal team discussed with the department but said the arguments made were not political in nature.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Imelda Cuellar\u2019s lawyers said Wednesday they were gratified by Trump\u2019s pardon of their client.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has always maintained her innocence,” the statement said.<\/p>\n
Henry Cuellar still faces an Ethics Committee investigation in the House. It began in May 2024 shortly after his indictment and was reauthorized in July. The committee said it was in contact with the Justice Department about mitigating the risks associated with dual investigations while still meeting its obligations to safeguard the integrity of the House.<\/p>\n
Cuellar, who has served in Congress for more than 20 years, is a moderate Democrat who represents an area on the Texas-Mexico border and has a history of breaking with his party when it comes to immigration and firearms.<\/p>\n
He was among the most vocal critics of the Biden administration\u2019s response to a record number of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. He also is one of the last Democrats in Congress who opposes abortion rights.<\/p>\n
Trump was asked later Wednesday by a reporter if he spoke with GOP leaders in the House about pardoning the Democratic congressman and if there were any concerns it might strengthen Cuellar\u2019s prospects next year.<\/p>\n
Trump said, \u201cIt didn\u2019t matter\u201d and that Cuellar was targeted for his comments critical of immigration.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe represents the people on the border and he saw what was happening,\u201d Trump said<\/p>\n
The Democrat earlier Wednesday filed to run for reelection.<\/p>\n
Cuellar is not the only Democrat Trump has pardoned this year. February, he pardoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, five years after he had commuted his sentence in a political corruption case.<\/p>\n
Like in Cuellar\u2019s case, Trump suggested that New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, faced federal corruption charges because he made comments critical of Biden\u2019s immigration policies.<\/p>\n
Trump did not pardon Adams, but after Trump took office, the Justice Department moved to drop the case against the mayor, who had begun working with the Republican administration on immigration issues.<\/p>\n
A top Justice Department official, who was also Trump\u2019s defense lawyer in several of his cases, stepped in to seek dismissal in the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump pardoned Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar and his wife in a federal bribery…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-329748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}