Trump urges ‘payback’ against Cuellar after unconditional pardon

A prosecution, not a sentence

Trump said in his latest post that the couple would have gone to prison ‘for over 20 years’. That was not a sentence handed down by a court: they were still awaiting trial when the pardon was announced. The Tribune reported in December 2025 that their trial had been postponed to April. [1] [9]

The original 2024 indictment contained 14 counts. Prosecutors alleged that the couple accepted at least $598,000 in bribes from an oil and gas company controlled by Azerbaijan’s government and a bank headquartered in Mexico City. Cuellar has said he and his wife are innocent. [3] [10]

A judge dismissed two counts in August 2025 at prosecutors’ request after a change in enforcement priorities, but refused to dismiss the entire indictment. Twelve counts remained at that stage. [4]

In that dismissal dispute, Judge Lee H. Rosenthal wrote that the couple had offered no evidence of government bad faith or intended future harassment. That observation concerned the handling of those two counts, not why the original investigation began. [4]

In his October post, Trump also alleges that Democrats persecuted Cuellar because they disliked him. [1] House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries separately called the indictment ‘very thin’ and supported the pardon, the Tribune reported on 3 December 2025. [9]

The sheriff’s separate case

Trump described Cuellar’s brother, Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar Jr., as having been indicted ‘a short time later’ on ‘the same charges’. [1] [10]

The Justice Department’s chronology distinguishes the indictment from its public disclosure: a grand jury returned the sheriff’s five-count indictment on 19 November 2025, before the December pardon. It was unsealed on 22 January 2026, after the pardon. The public disclosure therefore fits the later timing; the formal indictment does not. [6] [10] [2]

The cases share general fraud and conspiracy terminology, but the alleged conduct is different. The US Justice Department described misuse of sheriff’s-office funds, staff and resources for a private disinfecting business between 2020 and 2022. [6] [3] AP reported in January 2026 that Martin Cuellar had pleaded not guilty, and that his lawyer denied the sheriff’s involvement in the business. [10]