The first real sign of trouble for Rep. Henry Cuellar came in January 2022, when the FBI showed up at his house as part of a “court-authorized ongoing investigation.” Local reporting added at the time that agents were seen “taking cases and other items from the congressman’s home,” and the FBI was also present “at a downtown building owned by Cuellar that reportedly houses his campaign office as well as other private businesses.”
It seemed like only a matter of time before the public would learn about a possible indictment against the Texas Democrat. In May 2024, as Republicans continued to insist that the Biden-era Justice Department was out to get GOP officials, that’s precisely what happened: Prosecutors brought corruption charges against the congressman.
A year and a half later, Donald Trump pardoned Cuellar. As my MS NOW colleague Erum Salam reported:
President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he would pardon Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, and his wife, Imelda, who were indicted in 2024 on charges of bribery, unlawful foreign influence and money laundering. ‘Henry, I don’t know you, but you can sleep well tonight — Your nightmare is finally over!’ Trump wrote in his announcement of the pardon on Truth Social.
On the surface, these developments might appear counterintuitive, since the president is a Republican and the controversial congressman is a Democrat. But that’s what makes the broader pattern so important: Trump appears to have a soft spot for politicians accused of — and in some cases, convicted of — corruption charges, regardless of party.
In the president’s first term, for example, he pardoned seven former Republican members of Congress, each of whom had been convicted of corruption charges: New York’s Chris Collins, California’s Duncan Hunter, Texas’ Steve Stockman, Arizona’s Rick Renzi, North Carolina’s Robin Hayes, Michigan’s Mark Siljander and California’s Randall “Duke” Cunningham.
In the first year of his second term, Trump has picked up where he left off, issuing pardons to a great many politicians who were either indicted for corruption, convicted or both. The list includes Rod Blagojevich, Illinois’ former Democratic governor; but mostly, it’s Republicans who’ve benefitted: former Reps. Michael Grimm and George Santos of New York, former Gov. John Rowland of Connecticut, former state House Speaker Glen Casada of Tennessee, former state Sen. Brian Kelsey of Tennessee, former Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins of Virginia and former Las Vegas City Council member Michele Fiore of Nevada.
There was a time when federal public corruption prosecutors had important and satisfying jobs. In 2025, this is clearly no longer the case.
Let’s also not forget that Trump’s Justice Department has also abandoned the criminal case against a former Republican congressman who’d already been found guilty of corruption by a jury, while simultaneously taking steps to abandon a corruption investigation targeting an incumbent Republican congressman.
And did I mention that Trump’s DOJ also dropped its corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams? Because that happened, too.
The message to politicians convicted or accused of corruption couldn’t be clearer: You have a friend in the Oval Office.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
