US President Donald Trump has announced he will pardon Texas Democratic Congressional Representative Henry Cuellar and wife Imelda Cuellar in a federal bribery and conspiracy case, citing a vendetta by former US President Joe Biden. The two had been charged with accepting around $600,000 in bribes to influence legislation favourable to Azerbaijan.
Trump wrote on social media on Wednesday that he would issue a ‘full and unconditional’ pardon to the Cuellars, claiming that Biden had ‘weaponised the Justice System [sic]’ against his political opponents.
‘Henry, I don't know you, but you can sleep well tonight — Your nightmare is finally over!’, Trump wrote.
Attached to the message was a separate post from May 2024, in which Trump had accused Biden of charging Cuellar because he ‘bravely spoke out against Open Borders [sic]’.
Trump repeated these claims at the White House, telling a journalist that Cuellar was ‘treated very badly because he said people should not be allowed to pour into our country. And he was right’.
‘He got indicted for speaking the truth’, Trump added, before going on a tangent about the additional indictment against Imelda Cuellar.
‘Usually they leave the wives alone [...] Typically they indict someone, put them in jail for the rest of his life, but the wife could just sit home and cry, or she’ll find a new man, you know’, Trump said.
On Wednesday morning, Cuellar filed for re-election as a Democrat, despite speculation that he might switch parties and help boost the Republican’s narrow majority in the House.
A 54-page indictment
Henry and Imelda Cuellar were indicted on money laundering, conspiracy, and bribery charges by a Texas court in May 2024. Both were released on bail after posting a $100,000 bond.
According to the indictment, they were accused of accepting a total of $600,000 in bribes from a Mexican bank and an unidentified state-owned Azerbaijani petrol company, verified by OC Media to have been SOCAR.
Their indictment came after a two-year FBI probe into Cuellar’s ties to Azerbaijan.
The couple were found to have received bribes that were laundered through shell companies owned by Imelda Cuellar, with the indictment indicating that Henry Cuellar had ‘promised to use the power and prestige of his office to advance Azerbaijan’s […] interests in the United States’.
‘Henry Cuellar agreed, among other things, to influence a series of legislative measures relating to Azerbaijan’s conflict with neighbouring Armenia; to insert language favoured by Azerbaijan into legislation and committee reports governing certain security and economic aid programs; to deliver a pro-Azerbaijan speech on the floor of the House of Representatives; and to consult with representatives of Azerbaijan regarding their efforts to lobby the United States government’.
The Cuellars’ 54-page indictment detailed extensive communications between the couple and Azerbaijani handlers — listed in the report as Diplomat-1, Individual-1, and Individual-3. The indictment indicated that Diplomat-1 was Azerbaijan’s ambassador to the US at the time he established communications with Cuellar.
Aytan Farhadova
The two have maintained their innocence, and later in 2024, the criminal case notwithstanding, Henry Cuellar was re-elected for another term.
In August 2025, a judge in Texas dropped two of the charges and ruled that the trial be delayed until 2026 — at the time, there was some speculation the charges being dropped could be connected to the increased ties between Azerbaijan and the US. This was highlighted by the meeting that same month between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and US President Donald Trump in Washington. One of the key results of the meeting was an agreement to create a US-company managed road, dubbed the Trump Route, to connect Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhchivan, through Armenian territory.
Since the charges were initially announced, three others have pleaded guilty in connection to the case, including Irada Akhoundova, who had long served as the president of the nonprofit Houston–Baku Sister City Association.
Akhoundova pleaded guilty to violating FARA by ‘unlawfully acting as an agent of the Azerbaijani government and a state-run oil company’. She admitted to helping transfer a $60,000 payment to Imelda Cuellar on behalf of the Azerbaijani government.
Nate Ostiller
