President Trump Wednesday pardoned Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar and his wife who were accused in a $600,000 federal bribery case, saying the moderate border district lawmaker was a fellow victim of a “weaponized” justice system.
Trump called Cuellar “beloved” and “highly respected,” and said the Laredo lawmaker and his wife, Imelda, were targeted because he occasionally criticized former President Biden’s border security policies.
“Henry, I don’t know you, but you can sleep well tonight — Your nightmare is finally over,” Trump wrote on his social media site.
Trump said he decided to act after the couple’s two grown daughters recently wrote him to plead for clemency, saying their father was only charged because he supports “securing the border from policies of the previous administration.”
Cuellar, an 11-term lawmaker who is one of the most conservative Democrats in the House of Representatives, did not immediately comment on the pardon.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic minority leader, dodged questions about whether he supports Trump’s pardon but called the case against Cuellar “thin” and said he had expected the lawmaker to eventually beat the rap in court.
“He’s beloved in his community, particularly down in Laredo,” said Jeffries, adding that he expects Cuellar to remain a Democrat and to win reelection.
Federal authorities had charged Cuellar, 69, 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. They proclaimed their innocence.
Cuellar and another south Texas moderate Democratic congressman, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, have struggled to hold onto their seats amid a major shift to the right in the heavily Latino Rio Grande Valley, which was once overwhelmingly Democratic.
Cuellar and Gonzalez were already facing potentially tricky reelection bids in 2026 when Republicans moved to make both districts significantly more GOP-friendly in an unprecedented mid-decade redistricting bid.
A federal appeals court tossed out the new maps but the conservative Supreme Court put that decision on hold pending a decision that could come ahead of the state’s Dec. 8 filing deadline for congressional candidates.
