President Donald Trump lashed out at Rep. Henry Cuellar on Sunday, just days after pardoning the Texas Democrat, accusing him of disloyalty for filing to run for re-election as a Democrat.
“The Democrats, under the Crooked Joe Biden Administration, who always use extreme force and jail-time to destroy their political opponent, wanted to put Congressman Henry Cuellar, and his wife, Imelda, in PRISON, for 15 years,” Trump wrote in a long social media post on Sunday morning. “Only a short time after signing the Pardon, Congressman Henry Cuellar announced that he will be ‘running’ for Congress again … 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 – And probably still do! Such a lack of LOYALTY, something that Texas Voters, and Henry’s daughters, will not like. Oh well, next time, no more Mr. Nice guy!”
The Cuellars were indicted in 2024 on charges of bribery, unlawful foreign influence and money laundering. The F.B.I. raided their home in Laredo in 2022 after Rep. Cuellar allegedly accepted nearly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijani oil and gas company and a Mexican bank — funds that prosecutors alleged were laundered through shell companies owned by Imelda Cuellar. The Cuellars have maintained their innocence.
Trump said on Sunday that after receiving a letter from the Cuellars’ daughters pleading for help, he decided to pardon the couple. “God was very happy with me that day,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Cuellar is urging his Republican colleagues in the House to investigate his prosecutors from the Biden-era Justice Department, Politico reported on Friday. Although Cuellar has publicly thanked Trump for the pardon and said that he would work with his administration, he confirmed in a Fox News interview on Sunday that he remains a conservative Democrat. “I think anybody that puts party before their country is doing a disservice to their country,” Cuellar said.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter and producer for MS NOW. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian. Recommended
