FILE PHOTO: U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) poses for a photo in Laredo, Texas, U.S., October 9, 2019. Picture taken October 9, 2019. REUTERS/Veronica Cardenas/ File Photo

By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON, Dec 3 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he was granting a "full and unconditional pardon" to Democratic Representative Henry Cuellar of Texas, and his wife Imelda, who were charged with bribery.

Last year, Cuellar and his wife were indicted for allegedly accepting close to $600,000 in bribes in two schemes meant to benefit an Azerbaijani state-owned energy company and an unnamed bank based in Mexico.

He has maintained his innocence and that of his wife.

With a pardon from the Republican president resolving his legal problems, Cuellar is seeking a 12th two-year term with his Democratic Party throwing its full support behind him.

In thanking Trump on social media, Cuellar also said: "This pardon gives us a clean slate. The noise is gone. The work remains. And I intend to meet it head on."

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, not taking any chances that Cuellar could be persuaded to switch party allegiance and run as a Republican, lavished praise on the Texan, calling him a "beloved" House member and a "highly valued" member of the House Democratic Caucus, in an interview with CNN. Jeffries also said he thought Cuellar's indictment "was very thin to begin with."

In his own social media post, Trump accused former President Joe Biden's administration of having "weaponized" the justice system against Cuellar for having spoken out against Biden's immigration policies.

Cuellar, first elected to the House in 2004, is a moderate Democrat who has fended off primary challenges from more progressive candidates in the party.

The Democratic Party's congressional campaign committee has put Cuellar on its list of incumbent Democrats it is defending for re-election with additional resources because they could face stiff challenges in the 2026 midterm elections.

Trump's Justice Department has largely dismantled its Public Integrity Section, which was erected after the Watergate scandal to investigate and prosecute the country's most politically sensitive cases.

As the section has unraveled, Trump has pardoned or commuted sentences for many of the defendants in cases that remained outstanding in 2025, including former Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada, former Tennessee state lawmaker Brian Kelsey, a former Virginia sheriff and a Las Vegas councilwoman.

He also commuted the prison sentence for former Republican Representative George Santos. All of these prosecutions, as well as Cuellar's, were secured by the Public Integrity Section.

(Reporting by Katharine Jackson, Ryan Patrick Jones, Richard Cowan and Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Caitlin Webber, Franklin Paul and David Gregorio)