When President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he was granting a full pardon to Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas, the move raised eyebrows… well, everywhere. The question many are asking is, why would he do it?
It’s not as complicated as you might think.
In May 2024, the Biden Justice Department indicted Cuellar and his wife, accusing them of participating in a scheme that funneled roughly $600,000 in bribes through sham consulting contracts with Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil company and a Mexico City bank. Allegedly, Cuellar leveraged his congressional position to influence U.S. policy in their favor. I have no idea how strong the case against him is, but I do know that Cuellar was also one of the few Democrats willing to openly criticize the Biden administration’s disastrous open-border policies.
Trump framed the decision as a necessary correction to the Biden administration's weaponization of federal law enforcement against political opponents, casting Cuellar as a victim of retaliation for daring to criticize his open borders policies.
“For years, the Biden Administration weaponized the Justice System against their Political Opponents, and anyone who disagreed with them,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “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.’”
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Trump continued, “Sleepy Joe went after the Congressman, and even the Congressman’s wonderful wife, Imelda, simply for speaking the TRUTH. It is unAmerican and, as I previously stated, the Radical Left Democrats are a complete and total threat to Democracy! They will attack, rob, lie, cheat, destroy, and decimate anyone who dares to oppose their Far Left Agenda, an Agenda that, if left unchecked, will obliterate our magnificent Country.”
I want to thank President Trump for his tremendous leadership and for taking the time to look at the facts. 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.
— Rep. Henry Cuellar (@RepCuellar) December 3, 2025
This pardon gives us a… pic.twitter.com/ajNvHq6rG0
We all know how Joe Biden weaponized the justice system against Trump, his allies, and conservative groups. It’s not exactly out of the realm of possibility that Biden would turn on someone in his own party for stepping out of line.
I’ve said before that Joe Biden followed the Obama playbook throughout his presidency, and indicting a member of his own party for getting out of line is part of that playbook. Former Sen. Bob Menendez once argued that the Obama administration turned the Justice Department against him back in 2015 with an indictment right as he was pushing back against Obama’s Iran nuclear deal.
“When, as the Chairman of the [Senate Foreign Relations Committee], I didn’t go along with Obama’s Iran deal, I was indicted, and the next day after being stripped of my position, Obama announced the Iran deal,” Menendez alleged.
“Obama told me that he could not have the Democratic Chairman of the SFRC be against him. By having me removed as the Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Obama removed my major opposition to his Iran deal,” he continued.
That indictment kicked off his first corruption trial, which ended in a hung jury. He was subsequently indicted and convicted on different charges.
The pardon of Cuellar was an extraordinary moment—a Republican president granting clemency to a sitting Democratic congressman—but it also drove home Trump’s broader mission to undo the damage from Biden’s weaponized justice system, no matter which party the victims came from.
