Democratic Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar, freshly pardoned by President Donald Trump and now defiantly clinging to his Democratic label, is discovering that political opportunism comes with a steep price in lost allies on Capitol Hill.
Trump granted clemency to Cuellar and his wife earlier in December after both were indicted by President Joe Bidens Department of Justice (DOJ) on federal bribery charges, a move the President framed as a response to what he saw as a politically motivated prosecution over Cuellars criticism of Bidens border failures.
According to the Daily Caller, prosecutors alleged that between 2014 and 2021, Cuellar and his wife accepted roughly $600,000 from an Azerbaijan state-controlled oil and gas firm and a Mexican financial institution, allegedly in exchange for the congressman using his office to advance Azerbaijans interests, accusations the couple has consistently denied.
It has become increasingly apparent in Washington that the pardon was widely viewed as part of a broader political calculation: an effort to coax Cuellar into retirement or to flip him into running as a Republican in order to bolster GOP prospects of holding the House in 2026. That strategy collapsed on Sunday when Cuellar announced he would remain a Democrat, prompting Trump to unload on him publicly and underscore the Presidents expectation of loyalty from those he rescues from legal peril.
Congressman Henry Cuellar announced that he will be running for Congress again, in the Great State of Texas (a State where I received the highest number of votes ever recorded!), as a Democrat, continuing to work with the same Radical Left Scum that just weeks before wanted him and his wife to spend the rest of their lives in Prison, Trump wrote on TruthSocial. And probably still do! Such a lack of LOYALTY, something that Texas Voters, and Henrys daughters, will not like. Oh [sic] well, next time, no more Mr. Nice guy!
Cuellars decision has effectively torched his relationship with Trump while failing to win him full acceptance back within his own caucus. As he maneuvers to reclaim his ranking position on the powerful Appropriations subcommittee overseeing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its roughly $60 billion annual budget, some Democrats are signaling they are not eager to reward a colleague whose legal troubles and Trump pardon have become a political liability.
That position is critical its Homeland Security, one Democrat told Politico. Your moral values are important at least mine are and I cant look at myself in the mirror and vote for him.
Others on the left are using Cuellars case to revive their broader narrative that Trumps pardons are inherently tainted, even as they ignore the aggressive lawfare tactics of the Biden DOJ against political opponents. Ive had nothing but good interactions with Henry in Congress, but we cant be the party of following the law and say its just fine to break it and get a pardon from Trump, said Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, who recently launched a Senate bid.
Democratic New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim went further, casting Trumps use of the pardon power as a systemic threat while sidestepping the question of whether the DOJs original charges were themselves politically motivated. President Trumps continued efforts to pardon politicians that are either convicted or accused of corruption is just wrong, Kim told Politico. And this is exactly the kind of problem that causes so many Americans to lose trust and faith in our politics.
Cuellar, a relatively moderate Democrat who has occasionally broken with his party on border and energy issues, is not entirely isolated, however. Democratic Louisiana Rep. Troy Carter defended the basic constitutional principle at stake, reminding colleagues that a pardon does not erase the presumption of innocence nor the reality that Cuellar never had his day in court.
Under our system of laws, youre still innocent until proven guilty, Carter said. He was indicted but never went to trial was never proven to be guilty, never proven to be innocent, because there was no trial, but the pardon overrides that. Thats how the ball bounces.
The broader controversy has also reignited scrutiny of Trumps other high-profile pardons, with critics insisting that Cuellars clemency now appears to have been political and lumping it together with cases that seem corrupt on the surface, or, at the very least, unethical. In one striking example, Trump acknowledged after pardoning convicted crypto billionaire Changpeng Zhao, I dont know who he is, a remark that has fueled speculation about whether the pardon process in the new administration is being handled with sufficient rigor.
For an administration that has sharply criticized the Biden White Houses reported reliance on an autopenstyle, bureaucratized pardon system, the questions now swirling around Trump 47s own approach to clemency are not going away.
As Cuellar fights to salvage his standing in Congress and both parties posture over ethics and corruption, voters are left to weigh not only the DOJs credibility but also whether the constitutional pardon power is being wielded as a tool of justice or as just another instrument of raw political leverage.
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