Trump Pardoned a Congressman Accused of Taking $598,000 in Bribes, Then Called Him Disloyal

Trump Stopped the Case Before a Jury Could Decide

On October 7, 2026, President Trump urged a rally in San Antonio to elect the Republican running against Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Democrat he had pardoned ten months earlier.¹² If Cuellar's opponent won, Trump said, "we'll call that payback for a disloyal, ungrateful person."¹

The pardon, granted on December 2, 2025, covered Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, before trial on charges alleging at least $598,000 in foreign bribes.²³ It ended their exposure to a federal corruption prosecution before a jury could decide whether a congressman had sold his office to foreign interests.⁴³⁵ Five days later, Trump condemned Cuellar for running again as a Democrat.⁶

That sequence is the charge: Trump used the pardon power as a personal and political favor, then spoke as if the man he pardoned owed him allegiance.⁶⁷¹ Cuellar is the clearest case, not the only one: Trump announced a convicted cocaine trafficker's pardon in the same post as a foreign election endorsement, pardoned a sheriff convicted of taking bribes, and said helping Sean Combs was harder because Combs had turned hostile to him.⁸²⁹¹⁰ Each was his own grant or statement; the Cuellar warrant instructed the Pardon Attorney to declare the act the President's own.⁴⁸⁶¹⁰

A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Texas indicted the Cuellars on April 30, 2024, for conspiracy, bribery, conspiracy to commit honest-services wire fraud, acting as an agent of a foreign principal, and money laundering.³ Prosecutors alleged that an oil company wholly controlled by Azerbaijan's government and a Mexico City bank paid the money through sham consulting contracts and shell companies in return for Cuellar's official help.³ The alleged favors included influencing U.S. policy toward Azerbaijan and pressuring executive officials over anti-money-laundering enforcement that threatened the bank.³

Both Cuellars pleaded not guilty, and neither had been convicted when Trump intervened.¹¹² His signed warrant granted them a full and unconditional pardon.⁴

Pardon warrant, United States v. Enrique Roberto "Henry" Cuellar and Imelda Rios Cuellar, 4:24-cr-00224⁴

A FULL AND UNCONDITIONAL PARDON

The Favor Trump Expected Cuellar to Remember

Trump gave his reason for the pardon in a post on December 7: the Biden administration had targeted Cuellar over his support for border security, he said, and a letter from the congressman's daughters moved him to act in the interest of justice.⁶ He said he had never spoken to Cuellar, his wife, or his daughters.⁶

In the same post, Trump condemned Cuellar's decision to run again as a Democrat.⁶

Truth Social post (status 115678452939414622)⁶

Such a lack of LOYALTY, something that Texas Voters, and Henry’s daughters, will not like.

On January 6, 2026, Trump said he had not assumed Cuellar would run again, certainly not as a Democrat, and called the pardon the greatest favor of Cuellar's life.⁷ He announced support for Judge Tano Tijerina over Cuellar, citing stronger positions on the border, taxes, the military, and other issues.⁷

Truth Social post (status 115850412075994316)⁷

I am fighting him for his seat in Congress because his views are not nearly as good or strong as Judge Tano Tijerina

Nine months later, at the San Antonio rally, he again urged voters to elect Tijerina.¹

Factbase transcript, San Antonio midterm rally¹

we'll call that payback for a disloyal, ungrateful person

In the same speech, Trump said he had made no deal and had not offered the pardons in exchange for Cuellar turning Republican, but that he had expected Cuellar might not run again or might run as a Republican.¹ Cuellar's spokesperson told the Laredo Morning Times that he and his wife remained grateful and that he would work with both parties when it benefited South Texas.¹² Trump's statements do not prove a bargain before the grant; they establish that he expected gratitude, expressed through political allegiance.⁶⁷¹

In a July 13, 2026 post, Trump again said he had not expected Cuellar to run as a Democrat and was fighting him for his seat after giving him the greatest favor of his life.¹³ In an October 7 post, Trump said Cuellar and his wife should be serving a long prison sentence and urged voters to elect Tijerina to show that disloyalty brings loss, heartache and grief.¹⁴

As of October 10, the Texas Secretary of State's ballot certification listed Cuellar as the Democrat, Tijerina as the Republican, and Marlón Durán as the Green candidate for the November 3, 2026 election.¹⁵

More Than 400 Tons of Cocaine, Then a Pardon

The day before he pardoned the Cuellars, Trump freed Juan Orlando Hernández, the president of Honduras from 2014 to 2022, whom an American jury had convicted of conspiring to import cocaine.¹⁶²¹⁷ After his April 2022 extradition to the United States, a federal jury in New York convicted him on March 8, 2024.¹⁶¹⁷ On June 26, 2024, Judge P. Kevin Castel sentenced him to 45 years in prison for the cocaine conspiracy and related firearms offenses, and fined him $8 million.¹⁷

DOJ described trial evidence showing that Hernández and his co-conspirators trafficked more than 400 tons of U.S.-bound cocaine, protected loads with machine guns and grenade launchers, and used Honduran police and military institutions to support the conspiracy.¹⁷ Prosecutors described millions of dollars in drug bribes that fueled his political rise, and a conspiracy that murdered rivals and people who threatened its business.¹⁷ DOJ said the people of Honduras and the United States bore the consequences.¹⁷

Trump granted the pardon on December 1, 2025, and Hernández left prison that day, according to the Congressional Research Service's account of Bureau of Prisons information.¹⁶ The 45-year punishment lasted less than a year and a half after sentencing.¹⁷¹⁶ AP reported that Hernández returned to Honduras in July 2026 and that on September 1 a Honduran judge dismissed a separate fraud and money-laundering case against him for insufficient evidence.¹⁸

Trump Joined the Pardon to His Preferred Candidate

On November 28, 2025, two days before Honduras's November 30, 2025 election, Trump put his promise to pardon Hernández and his appeal to vote for Nasry "Tito" Asfura in one post.⁸¹⁶ He promised U.S. support if Asfura won and warned that the United States would not keep supporting the country if he lost.⁸

Truth Social post (status 115629406693931908)⁸

VOTE FOR TITO ASFURA FOR PRESIDENT, AND CONGRATULATIONS TO JUAN ORLANDO HERNANDEZ ON YOUR UPCOMING PARDON.

Axios reported that Trump's longtime friend Roger Stone passed along Hernández's letter praising Trump and asking for clemency.¹⁹ Stone, who had published three Substack posts supporting a pardon, told Axios he directly urged Trump to act and argued that announcing it would energize the National Party, which Hernández had led and Asfura represented.¹⁹ Stone said he would make no money from the pardon.¹⁹

Trump said Hernández had been treated unfairly; the administration characterized the prosecution as a Biden setup.⁸¹⁶ In its December 8, 2025 assessment, CRS said the administration had provided no supporting evidence beyond repeating Hernández's complaints about his trial.¹⁶ The investigation, CRS noted, spanned multiple administrations, including Trump's first term, when co-conspirators were charged and convicted.¹⁶ Both the Obama and first Trump administrations had cooperated with Hernández on counternarcotics and migration, CRS noted.¹⁶ That cooperation coexisted with the drug conspiracy for which an American jury convicted him.¹⁶¹⁷

The administration has described its lethal military strikes in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific as aimed at stopping narcotics bound for the United States, and CRS reported that some members of Congress argue the pardon calls those stated objectives into question.¹⁶ In February 2025, the Trump administration had designated the Sinaloa cartel, with which Hernández worked, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorists.¹⁶

CRS also warned that perceptions of politically driven U.S. law enforcement could weaken Honduran support for security cooperation and the deterrent effect of the U.S.-Honduras extradition treaty.¹⁶

Trump's preferred candidate won.²⁰ Associated Press reported on December 24 that electoral authorities declared Asfura the winner, with 40.27% of the vote; his rival disputed the result.²⁰ CRS's December 8 assessment said Trump's election comments appeared to win over some undecided voters, while the pardon might have reduced that benefit because Asfura had reportedly tried to distance himself from Hernández.¹⁶

Cash for Badges, Then a Pardon

Six months before the Cuellar pardon, Trump pardoned Scott Jenkins, the former sheriff of Culpeper County, Virginia, whom ProPublica described as a longtime Trump supporter.²²¹ A federal jury in Charlottesville had convicted him on December 18, 2024, of conspiracy, honest-services fraud, and bribery.⁹ He had taken more than $75,000 in cash and campaign contributions in exchange for appointments as auxiliary deputy sheriffs, issuing official badges and credentials to people who were neither trained nor vetted and did no legitimate work for the county.⁹²² Two of the people who paid him were undercover FBI agents.²²

The jury's verdict

1. 1one count of conspiracy
2. 2four counts of honest services fraud
3. 3seven counts of bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds

DOJ said Jenkins also pressured local officials to restore the firearm rights of Rick Rahim, a convicted felon, through a petition falsely claiming Rahim lived in Culpeper County.²² On March 21, 2025, a judge sentenced Jenkins to ten years in prison.²²²

DOJ press release, "Former Culpeper Sheriff Sentenced to 10 Years on Federal Bribery Charges"²²

Scott Jenkins violated his oath of office and the faith the citizens of Culpeper County placed in him when he engaged in a cash-for-badges scheme

AP reported that Trump announced the pardon on Truth Social on May 26, 2025, saying Jenkins would not be going to jail the next day, and that he characterized the prosecution as political persecution and complained that the judge had blocked defense evidence.²³ DOJ dates the grant May 27, two months after sentencing.² AP also reported that Jenkins had denied any connection between the payments and badges and appealed his conviction in April 2025.²³ His pardon overrode the punishment; it did not reverse the jury's finding that Jenkins took bribes.²⁹

On May 26, the day Trump announced the pardon and one day before DOJ's recorded grant date, Pardon Attorney Ed Martin posted a political slogan on X.²⁴²³²

Post on X (@EagleEdMartin), archived²⁴

No MAGA left behind.

ProPublica connected Martin's slogan to the Jenkins pardon; the post itself names no one.²¹²⁴

Trump Named the Personal Grievance

The fourth case is not a grant but Trump's own statement of what makes mercy harder to give.¹⁰ On May 30, 2025, he said he would examine the facts of Sean Combs's case and that whether a mistreated person liked him would have no impact on his decision.²⁵

Before Trump's August interview, the jury convicted Combs on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution and acquitted him on three counts involving racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking.²⁶²⁷ On August 1, 2025, Newsmax asked Trump at the White House whether he would consider pardoning Combs.¹⁰ Trump acknowledged the mixed verdict, then said he had once been friendly with Combs but that Combs had turned hostile when he ran for office and had made statements about him he considered terrible.¹⁰ He said he did not want personal feelings to cloud his judgment, yet said that history made helping Combs more difficult.¹⁰ When the interviewer suggested a pardon was more likely to be refused, Trump agreed.¹⁰ That answer contradicted the impartial standard he had stated in May.²⁵¹⁰

The court imposed a 50-month sentence on October 3, 2025.²⁶ CBS News reported that Trump said in January 2026 that he was not considering Combs's request, and reported on July 3, 2026 that he was privately discussing clemency for Combs, citing sources familiar with his plans.²⁷ As of October 10, 2026, DOJ's published clemency list, last updated September 9, included no pardon or commutation for Combs.²⁸ Neither those discussions nor the published list establishes a final clemency decision or its reason.²⁷²⁸

The Pardons Were Within Trump's Constitutional Power

The strongest defense is constitutional: Article II gives Trump the power to forgive federal offenses, with an exception for impeachment.²⁹ In Ex parte Garland, the Supreme Court said presidents could exercise it before trial, during proceedings, or after conviction.⁵ In Schick v. Reed, the Court held that the power comes from the Constitution and cannot be modified, abridged, or diminished by Congress.³⁰ Those rulings support the legal authority for the grants described here.⁵³⁰²⁹

Hamilton defended putting mercy in one person's hands so responsibility would encourage humanity, and argued that the power should be exercised with few encumbrances.³¹ The authority to pardon includes the authority to correct an unjust prosecution, including one the President believes was political.³¹⁵ Cuellar's pardon before conviction fits the power Garland recognized; the other pardons likewise fell within Trump's authority over federal offenses.⁴²⁵

That breadth answers the grants' legal validity, not whether Trump used the power responsibly.³² In Ex parte Grossman, the Supreme Court upheld presidential authority to pardon criminal contempt and considered a hypothetical president who repeatedly pardoned contempt to defeat court orders.³² Chief Justice William Howard Taft's answer was impeachment, not a narrower pardon power.³²

Ex parte Grossman, 267 U.S. 87 (opinion)³²

Exceptional cases like this if to be imagined at all would suggest a resort to impeachment rather than to a narrow and strained construction of the general powers of the President.

Article II provides for removal after impeachment and conviction for treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.²⁹ Hamilton described impeachable offenses as misconduct by public officials involving abuse or violation of a public trust; that is his reading of the standard, not a court's ruling.³³

At Virginia's ratifying convention on June 18, 1788, George Mason warned that a president could pardon crimes he had advised; Madison answered that the House could impeach a president suspected of using the power to shelter himself.³⁴

Mercy Turned Into Political Obligation

No jury decided whether a congressman had sold his office to foreign interests.⁴³⁵ A 45-year sentence for a cocaine conspiracy ended less than a year and a half after it was imposed.¹⁷¹⁶ Trump used the pardon power as a personal and political favor, then spoke as if Cuellar owed him allegiance.⁶⁷⁸¹⁰ That use of a public trust for his own political account is the abuse this article asks Congress to judge through impeachment.³³³⁴³²