Washington — President Trump introduced Wednesday that he’s pardoning Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, who was indicted final 12 months on greater than a dozen federal prices associated to bribery allegations.
Mr. Trump introduced the pardon for Cuellar and his spouse, Imelda, on Truth Social, claiming their prosecution was the results of weaponization by the Justice Department below former President Joe Biden.
“Henry, I do not know you, however you’ll be able to sleep properly tonight — Your nightmare is lastly over!” the president wrote, alleging that Cuellar’s opposition to Biden’s immigration insurance policies was the explanation he was indicted.
The president wrote that the Texas Democrat “bravely spoke out towards Open Borders and the Biden Border ‘Catastrophe'” and accused Biden of intentionally focusing on the congressman and his spouse “merely for talking the TRUTH.”
Mr. Trump included in his social media publish a letter he obtained from Cuellar’s daughters requesting clemency for his or her dad and mom.
The two ladies, Christina and Catherine Cuellar, wrote of their letter, dated Nov. 12, that they believed the congressman’s “independence and honesty could have contributed to how this case started.”
“He has by no means been afraid to talk his thoughts, particularly in relation to defending the individuals of South Texas and securing the border from insurance policies of the earlier administration,” they instructed the president.
Cuellar’s daughters additionally appeared to reference Mr. Trump’s personal prison instances, which they known as his “challenges.” They stated they prayed for the president and his household “as a result of we all know that behind the headlines, there are actual individuals who harm, who love and who nonetheless hope for higher days.”
Mr. Trump confronted federal prices in two instances introduced by former particular counsel Jack Smith, although each ended after he gained the presidency final 12 months. A state prosecution in Georgia associated to the 2020 election was additionally dismissed final week. The president was convicted on 34 felony counts in New York in June 2024 and has appealed the conviction.
In final 12 months’s indictment towards the Cuellars, federal prosecutors accused them of accepting at the very least $598,000 in bribes from an oil and fuel firm owned by the federal government of Azerbaijan and a Mexican financial institution. They alleged that the bribes had been laundered within the type of sham consulting contracts via entrance corporations and middlemen into shell corporations owned by Imelda Cuellar. The congressman’s spouse, in accordance with the indictment, “carried out little or no professional” work below the consulting contracts.
The Justice Department additionally accused Cuellar of appearing as a international agent to profit the federal government of Azerbaijan.
He confronted 14 counts, together with conspiracy, bribery and cash laundering. Cuellar and his spouse pleaded not responsible.
The congressman, who served as the highest Democrat on the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, stepped down from the publish whereas the case continued. Cuellar was elected to the House in 2005 and at the moment represents the twenty eighth Congressional District, which stretches from San Antonio south to the U.S.-Mexico border. He gained reelection final 12 months, defeating his Republican opponent by greater than 13,000 votes.
The president’s choice to grant clemency to Cuellar comes as Mr. Trump has confronted backlash for his current use of the pardon energy, particularly for offering reprieve to Juan Orlando Hernandez, the previous president of Honduras who was convicted final 12 months of serving to to smuggle 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S.
Hernandez had been sentenced to 45 years in jail after he was discovered responsible of drug trafficking and weapons prices. But in asserting his choice to pardon Hernandez, Mr. Trump stated he was handled “very harshly and unfairly.”
Hernandez was launched from a federal jail in West Virginia on Monday.
While Mr. Trump pardoned Hernandez, his administration has additionally ordered strikes on vessels within the Caribbean that had been allegedly carrying medication.
