Washington, United States: US President Donald Trump has pardoned a Democratic member of Congress in a bribery case, saying the justice system had been “weaponized” by his predecessor Joe Biden.
“I am hereby announcing my full and unconditional PARDON of beloved Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar ... I don’t know you, but you can sleep well tonight — Your nightmare is finally over!” Trump said on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday.
Cuellar and his wife had been facing several charges of conspiracy and bribery based on accusations from prosecutors that they had accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of bribes from an oil and gas company partly owned by the government of Azerbaijan.
The couple have denied the charges for which they were facing trial in April.
“I want to thank President Trump for his tremendous leadership and for taking the time to look at the facts,” Cuellar said in response to the pardon in a post on X on Wednesday.
Trump, without citing evidence, said that former president Biden’s administration has “weaponized the Justice System against their political opponents,” adding that Cuellar had spoken out against “Open Borders and the Biden Border ‘Catastrophe.’“
Trump, who has blamed his own past legal problems on political “witch hunts,” has also made several high-profile pardons since taking office for a second term this year.
Former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez was released from a West Virginia prison where he was facing more than four decades behind bars on narcotics and weapons charges on Monday following a surprise pardon from the US president.
Trump has also offered legal relief to a Democratic politician in the past, in February pardoning Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich over a political corruption case.
Trump pardons Democratic congressman in bribery case
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Trump pardons Democratic congressman in bribery case
- Cuellar and his wife had been facing several charges of conspiracy and bribery
- The couple have denied the charges
Cuba says a 5th person died after people on a Florida-flagged speedboat opened fire on soldiers
- Authorities in Cuba said that on Feb. 26 Cuban soldiers confronted a speedboat carrying 10 people as the vessel approached the island and opened fire on the troops
- The shooting threatened to increase tensions between US President Donald Trump and Cuban authorities
HAVANA: Cuba said a fifth person has died as a consequence of a fatal shootout last month involving a Florida-flagged speedboat that allegedly opened fire on soldiers in waters off the island nation’s north coast.
The island’s interior ministry said late Thursday in a statement that Roberto Álvarez Ávila died on March 4 as a result of his injuries. It added that the remaining injured detainees “continue to receive specialized medical care according to their health status.”
Authorities in Cuba said that on Feb. 26 Cuban soldiers confronted a speedboat carrying 10 people as the vessel approached the island and opened fire on the troops. They said the passengers were armed Cubans living in the US who were trying to infiltrate the island and “unleash terrorism”. Cuba said its soldiers killed four people and wounded six others.
“The statements made by the detainees themselves, together with a series of investigative procedures, reinforce the evidence against them,” the Cuban interior ministry said in its statement, adding that “new elements are being obtained that establish the involvement of other individuals based in the US”
Earlier this week, Cuba said it had filed terrorism charges against six suspects that were on the speedboat. The government unveiled items said to have been found on the boat, including a dozen high-powered weapons, more than 12,800 pieces of ammunition and 11 pistols.
Cuban authorities have provided few details about the shooting, but said the boat was roughly 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) northeast of Cayo Falcones, off the country’s north coast. They also provided the boat’s registration number, but The Associated Press was unable to readily verify the details because boat registrations are not public in the state of Florida.
The shooting threatened to increase tensions between US President Donald Trump and Cuban authorities. The island’s economy was until recently largely kept economically afloat by Venezuela’s oil, which is now in doubt after a US military operation deposed then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
