(NewsNation) — Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, who received a pardon from President Donald Trump, tells NewsNation he was targeted by the Biden administration’s Justice Department.

Cueller joined “On Balance” hours after Trump said Wednesday he was granting a full and unconditional pardon to Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, who last year were indicted on charges related to allegedly accepting nearly $600,000 in bribes and laundering the funds.

“Absolutely,” Cueller said when asked if he felt targeted. “I haven’t been able to talk about a lot of things of the case, but now that the pardon has been signed, you know, we’ll be talking about some of these things.

“It was tough on the family. You know, I certainly thank President Trump, and I thank God,” Cueller added.

In a Truth Social post announcing the preemptive pardon, Trump asserted that Cuellar was unfairly targeted by the Biden administration because of the congressman’s willingness to criticize the White House’s immigration policies.

“There’s a lot of things that they did that are wrong, and I think … House investigators need to investigate the prosecutors that were involved in this case,” Cueller said.

In March 2024, the Justice Department indicted the Cuellars on 14 counts. The indictment outlined payments Henry Cuellar allegedly accepted from an oil company owned by the Azerbaijan government and a Mexican bank.

A judge in August dismissed two of the 14 counts in the case at the request of federal prosecutors and set a trial for next year.

NewsNation partner The Hill contributed to this report.