Trump formally pardons former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández

By Kaitlan Collins, Maria Santana, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump has formally pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, according to his attorney Renato Stabile.

Trump had announced his intention of granting a “full and complete pardon” to Hernández last week in a move that erases a major US drug-trafficking conviction for a onetime US ally.

Hernández has been released from prison, according to his attorney. A US Bureau of Prisons database also shows that the former Honduran president was released from a prison in West Virginia.

“On behalf of President Hernandez and his family I would like to thank President Trump for correcting this injustice. President Hernandez is glad this ordeal is over and is looking forward to regaining his life after almost 4 years in prison,” Stabile added in a statement.

President of Honduras from 2014 until 2022, Hernández was convicted and sentenced last year to 45 years in prison and given an $8 million fine by a US judge for drug trafficking offenses.

Hernández’s wife, Ana García de Hernández, said in a social media post that her husband was a “free man” thanks to Trump’s pardon.

The White House on Monday defended Trump’s plan to pardon Hernández after facing criticism that granting clemency to a convicted drug trafficker ran counter to their ongoing pressure campaign against drug cartels in the Caribbean.

“This was a clear Biden over-prosecution,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. “He was the president of this country. He was in the opposition party. He was opposed to the values of the previous administration, and they charged him because he was president of Honduras.”

But as CNN has reported, prosecutors accused Hernández of conspiring with drug cartels during his tenure as they moved more than 400 tons of cocaine through Honduras toward the United States. In exchange, prosecutors said, Hernández received millions of dollars in bribes that he used to fuel his rise in Honduran politics.

Though the Trump administration is blaming the Biden administration, Hernández’s brother was actually prosecuted by Emil Bove during Trump’s first term in office. Bove then served as Trump’s personal attorney before becoming a federal judge nominated by Trump.

There were several people in Trump’s orbit lobbying for Hernandez’s pardon, including his longtime ally Roger Stone, who said he called on Trump in June to pardon him and claimed he was targeted by the Biden administration.

The-CNN-Wire
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