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In an surprise move, President Donald Trump has announced that he is pardoning Henry Cuellar, a Democratic congressman from Texas indicted last year on federal corruption charges. In a TruthSocial post, Trump repeated his typical refrain that the federal government under President Joe Biden “weaponized the Justice System,” then accused Biden of trying to “take out” the “highly respected congressman” after he “bravely spoke out” against Biden’s border policies.

“Sleepy Joe went after the Congressman, and even the Congressman’s wonderful wife, Imelda, simply for speaking the TRUTH,” Trump wrote, before announcing that he was granting Cuellar and his wife “my full and unconditional PARDON.”

“Henry, I don’t know you, but you can sleep well tonight — Your nightmare is finally over!” Trump added.

In a statement shared to social media, Cuellar thanked the president for his “tremendous leadership.”

“This decision clears the air and lets us move forward for South Texas. This pardon gives us a clean slate. The noise is gone. The work remains. And I intend to meet it head on.” he wrote. Cuellar also indicated that he was not switching parties:

“Nothing has changed,” Rep. Henry Cuellar tells reporters about his future after he gets pardoned by Trump. He has filed for reelection as a Democrat, per @elliskkim

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 3, 2025

In May 2024, federal prosecutors unveiled a grand-jury indictment against Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, accusing the couple of accepting around $600,000 in bribes from an oil company owned by the Azerbaijani government, as well as a Mexican bank, between 2014 and 2021. Cuellar is alleged to have used his office to influence U.S. foreign policy and legislative activity in favor of the foreign entities, and to have acted as a foreign agent on behalf of Azerbaijan. The Cuellars faced more than a dozen charges including conspiracy, bribery of a federal official, and money laundering. The congressman was slated to go on trial in April.

Cuellar is a long-standing political moderate who has served in the House of Representatives since 2004; he frequently ran unopposed. He fended off two significant primary challenges from progressive Jessica Cisneros in 2020 and 2022, the latter of which resulted in a runoff and a recount of the vote.

What’s especially surprising about Trump’s move is that likely puts his own party in a tough position in Texas. The NRCC, House Republicans’ campaign arm, had seen Cuellar’s district as a top flipping prospect. In a statement last month, an NRCC spokesman said of the congressman, “Cuellar is broke, indicted, and completely out of touch with South Texans’ values.”

There were however signs that the president was amenable to the congressman’s plight. Shortly after Cuellar was indicted, Trump denounced the move and said Cuellar was indicted because he “wouldn’t play Crooked Joe’s Open border game.”

Punchbowl News noted in February that the Trump administration had taken an interest in Cuellar, reporting that the congressman had conversations with Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, and border czar Tom Homan. Cuellar represents a border district and frequently bucks his party on immigration and other issues.

This is far from the first time that Trump has utilized his pardon power for members of Congress. Most recently, the president commuted the sentence of former Republican congressman George Santos who began serving a seven year sentence in April after pleading guilty to counts of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Trump has yet to weigh in on the fate of another Democratic member: former Senator Bob Menendez. In January, the onetime chair of the Senate Foreign Relations committee was sentenced to 11 years in prison after being found guilty of receiving bribes and acting as a foreign agent. Menendez, who long professed his innocence, appeared to be actively courting action from Trump in the weeks prior to the start of his sentence, claiming the justice system had been weaponized against him and criticizing the Southern District of New York, a longtime foe of the president.

“President Trump is right. This process is political and has been corrupted to the core. I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores integrity to the system,” Menendez wrote in a statement following his conviction, tagging Trump on social media.

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