Trump Pardons Texas Democratic Rep. Cuellar and His Wife, Ending Their Federal Bribery Case
On December 3, 2025, President Donald Trump announced a full and unconditional pardon for U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat, and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, ending the federal case built on allegations of some $600,000 in bribes. Cuellar, from Laredo in Webb County, Texas, is a senior House Democrat; the pardon warrant was signed by Trump on December 2 and publicly announced on December 3 on his Truth Social platform.
In the post, Trump said Cuellar had bravely spoken out against open borders and had been targeted by the Biden administration's weaponized justice system, writing, "Henry, I don't know you, but you can sleep well tonight." The post also included screenshots of a letter from Cuellar's two daughters asking for the pardon. Speaking to reporters at the White House the same day, Trump said Cuellar "was treated very badly because he said that people should not be allowed to pour into our country, and he was right."
The case began on May 3, 2024, when the Justice Department announced an indictment unsealed in the Southern District of Texas charging the Cuellars with accepting approximately $600,000 in bribes between December 2014 and November 2021 from two foreign entities: an oil and gas company wholly owned and controlled by the government of Azerbaijan, and a bank headquartered in Mexico City. The payments were allegedly laundered through sham consulting contracts and shell companies. In exchange, Cuellar allegedly agreed to use his office to influence U.S. foreign policy in favor of Azerbaijan and to act on behalf of the Mexican bank's interests. The couple faced 14 counts, including conspiracy, bribery, honest services wire fraud and money laundering, and maintained their innocence. In August 2025 a federal judge dismissed two of the counts tied to foreign-agent registration, and the remaining counts had been set for trial in Houston in April 2026.
Cuellar publicly thanked Trump after the announcement and filed the same day to run for reelection as a Democrat. The pardon ends the federal criminal case; the House Ethics Committee investigation into Cuellar, opened in May 2024, is outside the pardon's scope and continues.
Source: The White House
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于美国华盛顿的白宫北立面（资料照片）。Aaron Zhu 摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons；联邦固定图库标准图。 / Photo: The north facade of the White House in Washington (file photo). Photo by Aaron Zhu, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; federal fixed-library image.
