Days after receiving a presidential pardon on bribery and conspiracy charges, Congressman Henry Cuellar is calling for an investigation into the prosecutors who charged him and his wife.
In a Friday interview with Channel 5 News, Cuellar said the indictment was unfair and politically motivated.
“[Prosecutors] did other things I think should be looked at when they go against a sitting member of Congress,” Cuellar said. “The department knew they did not have the evidence, they even tried to do an entrapment, and that failed.”
Cuellar and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, were indicted in 2024 and accused of accepting $600,000 in bribes to advance the interests of an Azerbaijan-controlled energy company and a bank in Mexico, according to the Associated Press.
The case began in 2022 when federal agents raided Cuellar’s home and office in Laredo as he campaigned in the March 2022 primary election.
“We got a legal opinion… to make sure everything was legal and ethical,” Cuellar said. “They did it 40 days before an election where the lefties were spending $20 million against me in a contested election and it’s just very strange that they did it before that.”
READ MORE: ‘Now we can get back to work:’ Henry Cuellar reacts after receiving pardon from President Trump
Cuellar is encouraging his Republican colleagues in the House to lead the investigation.
“I talked to the chairman and he said they’d be happy to sit down with me,” Cuellar said. “They’re very interested in what I will be providing them.”
Two of Cuellar’s political consultants pleaded guilty last year in connection with the case as part of a plea deal.
“They should have not pled guilty in my opinion” Cuellar said. “None of the witnesses, including those two, ever said specifically there was quid pro quo. After they got pressure they did say, ‘well, we think we believe.’ You don’t send somebody to prison on ‘we think, we believe.’”
Trump issued the pardon on Wednesday, and said in a social media post that the Biden administration indicted Cuellar for speaking out against the administration’s immigration policies.
“I tried to work with the Biden administration on border security, and they didn’t want to listen. They had their own open border mentality,” Cuellar said. “I criticized the administration over 150 times, so when they do a raid 40 days before a contested election and they don’t ask if you have a legal opinion or an ethics opinion about all this, then yes I definitely think it was weaponization.”
Cuellar added that his acceptance of the pardon is not an admission of guilt.
“I did not admit to anything. The only thing they had out there was an indictment; that is not a conviction,” Cuellar said. “If they wanted to come after me because I had been critical of the Biden administration, that’s one thing. But when they bring my wife in and family in to pressure me, it is wrong. It is wrong.”
Cuellar said the pardon will not change his political stance.
“People know me, I’m a conservative Democrat,” Cuellar said.
