Biden derangement syndrome? Trump pardons Democrat to get back at former president

1. News
2. World
3. Americas
4. US politics

Cuellar and his wife had been facing bribery and conspiracy charges since last year

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox

Get our free Inside Washington email

Get our free Inside Washington email

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he was granting full pardons to Texas Representative Henry Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, absolving them of the bribery and conspiracy charges on which they had been indicted by the Department of Justice last year.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump claimed that Cuellar, a Democrat who has represented the Lone Star State’s 28th Congressional district since 2005, had been targeted by predecessor Joe Biden’s administration because of his hawkish stance on immigration issues.

“For years, the Biden Administration weaponized the Justice System against their Political Opponents, and anyone who disagreed with them. One of the clearest examples of this was when Crooked Joe used the FBI and DOJ to ‘take out’ a member of his own Party after Highly Respected Congressman Henry Cuellar bravely spoke out against Open Borders, and the Biden Border ‘Catastrophe,’” Trump said.

He further accused Biden and the Justice Department of having “went after the Congressman, and even the Congressman’s wonderful wife, Imelda, simply for speaking the TRUTH.”

Trump added: “Because of these facts, and others, I am hereby announcing my full and unconditional PARDON of beloved Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar, and Imelda. Henry, I don’t know you, but you can sleep well tonight — Your nightmare is finally over!”

The president’s latest use of the pardon power to undo a high-profile corruption investigation comes more than a year after prosecutors unveiled charges against the Cuellars for allegedly taking nearly $600,000 from a Azerbaijani-controlled company and a Mexican bank.

And the slap back at his predecessor comes one day after a cabinet meeting in which Trump and his secretaries referenced Biden dozens of times.

Prosecutors had alleged that Cuellar and his wife accepted bribes as part of an agreement to advance the interests of Azerbaijan and the bank in the US, according to an indictment.

The money was also allegedly laundered through a series of front companies and middlemen into shell companies owned by Imelda Cuellar.

Among other things, the congressman, who was at one time the co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus allegedly agreed to influence legislation favorable to Azerbaijan and deliver a pro-Azerbaijan speech on the floor of the U.S. House.

A conservative Democrat, Cuellar has long been a target of progressives given his opposition to abortion rights. In 2020 and 2022, Jessica Cisneros staged a primary challenger against him, sending him to a runoff, in which he prevailed both times.

House Democratic leadership has consistently backed him and belive that he is the only Democrat who can win in the heavily conservative and Latino Rio Grande Valley.

He won re-election to the House last year after running opposed in the 2024 Democratic primary.

The longtime border hawk Cuellar has also sharply criticized other Democrats for their comparatively lax policies on immigration and started a coterie of Democrats who support stronger measures called Democrats for Border Security Task Force.

Cuellar’s family also has a prominent presence in his border district. His brother is the sheriff of Webb County while his sister served as a judge for Rio Bravo and Webb Counties. His concentration of power has earned him the nickname “the King Laredo,” where he lives.

In 2022, the FBI raided Cuellar’s congressional office in Laredo and his home. His attorney at that time said the congressman was not the target of that investigation.

That search was part of a broader investigation related to Azerbaijan that saw FBI agents serve a raft of subpoenas and conduct interviews in Washington DC, and Texas.

Trump’s claim that Biden-era prosecutors targeted Cuellar as justification for pardoning him is just the latest example of him taking steps to undo high-profile prosecutions brought against public figures during the previous administration.

Last week, the president freed former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez from federal prison with a full pardon absolving him of the drug trafficking and weapons charges on which he had been convicted by a jury and sentenced to 45 years in prison by a federal judge.

Hernandez, whose brother Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández was sentenced to life in a U.S. prison in 2021 in Manhattan federal court for his own conviction on drug charges, had used his authority as Honduras’ head of state to give drug traffickers aid from the Honduran military and national police forces as they trafficked tons of cocaine into the United States.

At his trial, prosecutors presented evidence that he’d worked with drug traffickers as long ago as 2004, taking millions of dollars in bribes as he rose from rural congressman to president of the National Congress and then to the country’s highest office.

Trial witnesses included traffickers who admitted responsibility for dozens of murders and said Hernández was an enthusiastic protector of some of the world’s most powerful cocaine dealers, including notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who is serving a life prison term in the U.S.

The investigation which had led to the ex-Honduran president’s conviction was led at one point by Emil Bove, Trump’s former personal attorney who was a federal prosecutor at the time. Trump appointed Bove to a lifetime position as a federal judge and he was confirmed by the Senate to that role earlier this year.

Despite the significant evidence against Hernandez that was presented to the jury that convicted him, Trump claimed last week that the entire case had been a “Biden set-up,” telling reporters aboard Air Force One that he’d “looked at the facts” and agreed with Hernandez’s claim that the prosecution was politically motivated.

“It was a terrible thing. He was the president of the country and they basically said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country,” Mr Trump said, “And they said it was a Biden administration set-up. And I looked at the facts and I agreed with them,” he said.

More about

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Most popular

Popular videos

Bulletin

Read next