Trump pardons Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar in bribery case
President Trump on Wednesday pardoned Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar and his wife, defendants in a $600,000 federal corruption case, saying the moderate border district lawmaker was another victim of a “militarized” 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 adult daughters recently wrote to him asking for clemency, saying their father was only charged because he supported “securing the border against the policies of the previous administration.”
Cuellar, an 11-term lawmaker and 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, sidestepped questions about whether he supported Trump’s pardon but called the case against Cuellar “thin” and said he expected the lawmaker to eventually unravel in court.
“He is beloved in his community, especially in Laredo,” Jeffries said, adding that he expects Cuellar to remain a Democrat and win re-election.
Federal authorities had accused Cuellar, 69, and his wife of accepting thousands of dollars in exchange for representing the interests of an energy company controlled by Azerbaijan and a bank in Mexico. They proclaimed their innocence.
Cuellar and another moderate Democratic congressman from South Texas, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, have struggled to hold on to their seats amid a major shift to the right in the heavily Latino, once overwhelmingly Democratic, Rio Grande Valley.
Cuellar and Gonzalez were already facing potentially tricky re-election bids in 2026 when Republicans moved to make both districts much more GOP-friendly in an unprecedented mid-decade redistricting attempt.
A federal appeals court rejected the new maps, but the conservative Supreme Court put that decision on hold pending a ruling that could come before the Dec. 8 deadline for congressional candidates to file.
