Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) argued that former President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice weaponized the agency against him, after he was critical of the administration’s open border immigration policies.
Cuellar’s comments come after President Donald Trump pardoned the congressman on Wednesday, the first Democrat that Trump pardoned. Cuellar was indicted on corruption charges during the Biden administration.
“This was a case that got started under the Biden administration,” Cuellar told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. “I tried working with the Biden administration on border security … what they were doing at the open border was wrong, and I spoke against it when I saw they had a mindset of having open borders.”
When asked if Cuellar also thought Trump was weaponizing the DOJ against him, Cuellar said “no” and continued to blame the Biden administration.
Cuellar and his wife were indicted last year for bribery, money laundering, working on behalf of a foreign government, and conspiracy. The DOJ alleged that the couple accepted $600,000 from a Mexican bank and an oil company owned by the Azerbaijan government.
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The couple’s trial was set for September and was pushed again to 2026. A federal judge also ruled in August to drop the foreign agent charges.
Cuellar said he trusts Trump’s “judgement” on the pardon, when asked why the president chose to pardon him.
The 11-term congressman argued that the testimonies that were shared during the discovery process showed none of the witnesses saying there was quid pro quo.
“They violated the Constitution, those prosecutors, you know, when they say you can indict a ham sandwich, I saw what they did, and it was wrong what they did,” he said.
Cuellar’s campaign chairman and one of his political consultants pleaded guilty last year in connection with the case as part of a plea deal.
Cuellar revealed that he asked the House committee to investigate the prosecutors who indicted him and his wife.
He would not say which House members he spoke to, but he told Channel 5 News that he is encouraging his Republican colleagues to investigate.
“I talked to the chairman and he said they’d be happy to sit down with me,” Cuellar told local Rio Grande Valley, Texas 5 News. “They’re very interested in what I will be providing them.”
The longtime self-described “conservative-Democrat” said on Wednesday that he will be running for reelection and would not switch political parties, despite being pardoned by a Republican president.
Leading up to the pardon, Trump had been critical of the DOJ decision under Biden to pursue an indictment of Cuellar.
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“Biden just indicted Henry Cuellar because the Respected Democrat Congressman wouldn’t play Crooked Joe’s Open Border game. He was for Border Control, so they said, ‘Let’s use the FBI and DOJ to take him out!’ This is the way they operate,” Trump wrote on Truth Social at the time.
When announcing the pardon on Truth Social, Trump said Cuellar’s “nightmare is finally over.”