Reuters. U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday (December 3) said he was granting a "full and unconditional pardon" to Democratic Representative Henry Cuellar of Texas, and his wife Imelda, who were charged with bribery.
Last year, Cuellar and his wife were indicted for allegedly accepting close to $600,000 in bribes in two schemes meant to benefit an Azerbaijani state-owned energy company and an unnamed bank based in Mexico.
He has maintained his innocence and that of his wife.
With a pardon from the Republican president resolving his legal problems, Cuellar is seeking a 12th two-year term, backed by the Democratic Party establishment.
In thanking Trump on social media, Cuellar said: "This pardon gives us a clean slate. The noise is gone. The work remains. And I intend to meet it head on."
Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, linked Cuellar's indictment to his immigration policies, saying, "He was treated very badly because he said that people should not be allowed to pour into our country, and he was right. He didn't like open borders."
Cuellar, who has the reputation of being the House's most "conservative" Democrat, opposed lifting a provision allowing U.S. border agents to turn away migrants to prevent the spread of the coronavirus -- a move instituted in Trump's first term. He also pressed for more immigration judges to hear asylum cases and in 2021 joined with other lawmakers in urging then-President Joe Biden to improve the U.S. process for granting asylum. By 2023 he embraced a Biden administration rule on restricting asylum.
Cuellar, whose district relies heavily upon two-way trade with Mexico, voiced concerns about a border wall Trump sought. He voted against a House of Representatives move to impeach former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and he opposed requiring a citizenship question in U.S. census data.
