WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday pardoned Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, who was awaiting trial on charges that he and his wife had taken roughly $600,000 worth of bribes from an Azerbaijani oil company and a Mexican bank.
The indictment against Cuellar and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, filed last year in Houston, centered on accusations of bribery and money laundering. Despite Cuellar’s political affiliation, Trump has expressed public support for him, citing his willingness to speak out against Biden-era border policies.
“Sleepy Joe went after the Congressman, and even the Congressman’s wonderful wife, Imelda, simply for speaking the TRUTH,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, blaming the case on what he described as a weaponized Justice Department under the Biden administration. “Henry, I don’t know you, but you can sleep well tonight — Your nightmare is finally over!”
In a post on social media, Cuellar responded by thanking the president “for his tremendous leadership and for taking the time to look at the facts.” He added: “I thank God for standing with my family and I during this difficult time. This decision clears the air and lets us move forward for South Texas.”
The pardon, which Trump also extended to Cuellar’s wife, is another blow to the Justice Department’s public integrity section, which has been decimated after a standoff in February with a top department official at the time, Emil Bove, who demanded that the section’s lawyers seek to dismiss corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams of New York City.
According to the indictment, from 2014 through 2021, the Cuellars accepted about $600,000 worth of bribes from two foreign companies. The first was an oil and gas company owned and controlled by the government of Azerbaijan. The second was a bank, based in Mexico City.
Imelda Cuellar was also accused of using shell companies to receive income from bogus consulting contracts, for which she did little to no real work.
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