ANCA Condemns Reckless Trump Pardon of Corrupt Rep. Cuellar

In text message exchanges during the summer of 2020, as tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia escalated toward open war, Cuellar repeatedly promised Azerbaijani diplomats he would “add Rider on bases” and assured them, “I have another amendment I may add this week” to advance Azerbaijan’s interests against Armenia.

The indictment further uncovers how Rep. Cuellar agreed to insert pro-Azerbaijan speeches into Congressional records and to advance legislation that would undermine U.S. aid to Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh). In one email, Cuellar promised Azerbaijani contacts to “set up a meeting” with U.S. defense officials to discuss matters benefiting Azerbaijan, directly linking his legislative actions to the bribes received.

“Rep. Cuellar not only betrayed the trust of his South Texas constituents – by taking foreign money to obstruct our community’s right to petition our government – he cheated Americans of Armenian heritage from all across our country of our Constitutional right to honest representation,” the ANCA noted in a September 2025 letter to the U.S. Attorney. “By conspiring to rig U.S. foreign policy in favor of authoritarian Azerbaijan, Rep. Cuellar undermined American support for Armenian Christians, enabling Azerbaijan’s genocidal ethnic cleansing of Artsakh.”

Armenian Americans as Victims Under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act

In September 2025, the ANCA formally called upon U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei to recognize Americans of Armenian heritage as victims of Congressman Cuellar’s criminal conspiracy with Azerbaijan under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act (18 U.S.C. § 3771). This designation would permit Armenian American community representatives, including the ANCA, to submit victim impact statements and ensure the harms they suffered are factored into any sentencing or restitution decisions in the case.

In the letter to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian underscored that Rep. Cuellar’s alleged corruption deprived Armenian Americans of their constitutional right to petition their government and to participate in the democratic process free of foreign manipulation.

“Congressman Cuellar’s actions harmed Armenian Americans by undermining the free exercise of our constitutional right ‘peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,’ covertly conspiring with a foreign entity to reduce the impact of our advocacy as American citizens on the U.S. legislative process,” explained Hamparian in the letter.

Trump’s pardon effectively denies Armenian Americans their right as victims to see justice served and to have their harms acknowledged in sentencing proceedings.

A Decades-Long Pattern of Azerbaijani Influence Operations

The ANCA has, over the past three decades, warned of Azerbaijan’s efforts to buy influence in Washington, with Rep. Cuellar serving as a linchpin in these operations. As early as 2013, Cuellar accepted trips to Azerbaijan arranged by intermediaries later convicted of concealing Azerbaijani state sponsorship. From there, his ties to Azerbaijani oil companies deepened into what prosecutors laid bare as a years-long bribery scheme.

In January 2013, one of Cuellar’s organizations sponsored Rep. Cuellar and his wife to travel to Istanbul, Turkey and Baku, Azerbaijan at a cost of $26,125. Shortly after the Cuellars returned to the United States, Azerbaijani officials discussed recruiting Cuellar to promote Azerbaijan’s interests in Congress. An Azerbaijani diplomat emailed the director of the Azerbaijani oil company’s Washington, D.C. office, noting that Cuellar had just been appointed to the Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, and writing: “[t]he good news is that Cuellar was just in Baku.” The diplomat continued, “[w]e need to work with these offices to make sure we build an anti-[Representative-1] coalition”—referring to a member of the Congressional Armenian Caucus.

The magnitude of Azerbaijan’s global influence operations was first exposed by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project in its report on the “Azerbaijani Laundromat” — which found that, between 2012 and 2014, over $2.5 billion was laundered through slush funds into the accounts of European politicians and international organizations to suffocate criticism of the Azerbaijani regime’s abuses and promote Azerbaijan’s image on the world stage.

In 2013, reports revealed that a congressional delegation to Azerbaijan involving 10 members of Congress and over 30 staffers had been paid for without their knowledge by SOCAR, the state-owned oil company of Azerbaijan. The trip was the subject of an Ethics Committee investigation and ultimately led to the indictment of the delegation’s organizer, Kemal Oksuz, who worked closely with Cuellar to connect Azerbaijani oil executives with U.S. business leaders and elected officials.

Undermining U.S. Interests and Democratic Principles

In a June 2024 Huffington Post op-ed calling for Cuellar’s expulsion, ANCA Policy Director Alex Galitsky and National Grassroots Director Gev Iskajyan wrote: “As a matter of principle, Cuellar’s alleged transgressions should have warranted strong action regardless of which government he had scandalous dealings with. But the fact that Cuellar appears to have chosen to act on behalf of a regime engaged in the torture of prisoners of war, the execution of civilians, the systematic destruction of Armenian cultural heritage, and the blockade and forced displacement of 150,000 Armenian civilians last year demonstrates a contempt not only for our democratic process but for the principles of human rights and international law that supposedly underpin U.S. foreign policy.”

The op-ed continued: “In light of the gravity of the charges against Cuellar, both Republicans and Democrats must realize there’s much more on the line than control of the House of Representatives. As the U.S. hemorrhages credibility on the world stage amid its abject failure to uphold the principles of democracy and human rights it proclaims to hold dear, the refusal to expel Cuellar will only signal to Azerbaijan—and other abusive regimes—that U.S. democracy is for sale.”

Trump’s pardon sends precisely that signal: that foreign bribes to members of Congress will be tolerated, that American democracy can indeed be purchased by authoritarian regimes, and that there will be no accountability for betraying the American people’s trust.

Call for Congressional Action

The ANCA emphasized that Trump’s pardon makes Congressional action even more urgent. While the pardon may shield Cuellar from criminal prosecution, it does nothing to restore the integrity of Congress or accountability to the American people. The House of Representatives retains its constitutional authority – and duty – to expel members who have fundamentally betrayed their oath of office.

The ANCA is continuing its nationwide #ExpelCuellar campaign, demanding Cuellar’s immediate removal from Congress. The initiative rallies grassroots activists across the country to press their Representatives to vote for Cuellar’s expulsion, to demand a House Ethics Committee investigation into Azerbaijan’s broader foreign influence operations, and to bar Azerbaijani officials and registered foreign agents from access to Capitol Hill until a full accounting of this corruption is delivered.

“Recognizing Armenian-Americans as victims of Cuellar’s conspiracy is not just symbolic – it’s a concrete step toward justice and accountability,” added Hamparian. “Trump’s pardon makes that impossible in the courts. But Congress can still act. Only by expelling Cuellar and dismantling Azerbaijan’s illicit influence operations can we restore faith in the integrity of U.S. policy on issues of concern to Americans of Armenian heritage and our many allies across our great nation.”