- Trump announced pardon for Juan Hernández.
- Hernández convicted of drug trafficking charges.
- Serving 45-year sentence in the US.
Trump stated on Truth Social that Hernández, who was found guilty in 2024 of plotting to bring 400 tons of cocaine into the United States, would receive the order.
Trump connected the pardon to his backing for conservative candidate Nasry "Tito" Asfura in Honduras' next election, threatening to withhold U.S. assistance if Asfura loses.
Concerns regarding Trump's use of executive clemency have been raised by his pardon of a foreign leader found guilty in U.S. courts, which seems to go against his strict anti-drug trafficking stance in Latin America.
Additionally, Trump's remarks can be interpreted as an attempt to influence a foreign election, which would strengthen Hernández's party and threaten Xiomara Castro's leftist administration.
Trump declared that this should not be allowed to occur and promised to back Tito Asfura in the next presidential election, implying that if he lost, the United States would cease aiding Honduras and "not be throwing good money after bad."
Hernández, a member of the National Party of the nation, was president from 2014 to 2022, although he was beset by corruption scandals that sparked large-scale demonstrations.
He was charged with accepting bribes from Joaquin Guzman, the former head of the Mexican Sinaloa gang known as "El Chapo." Last year, Hernández was sentenced to 45 years in prison in Manhattan.
California representative Norma Torres wrote on X:
"I spent years fighting corruption in Latin America.
Hernández ran a cartel-backed criminal empire that trafficked over 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S., used his office to steal U.S. taxpayer dollars, and bought political power with drug money."
David Axelrod, a former adviser to President Barack Obama, wrote on X:
"How do you reconcile President Trump's self-proclaimed war on "narco-terrorists" with the full and complete pardon he just gave this notorious facilitator of drug trafficking?"
Trump did not provide a date for Hernández's pardon, which would have overturned his conviction and imprisonment and released him.
On Sunday, voters in Honduras will cast ballots for the country's president, vice president, and all 128 members of the National Congress.
How would a presidential pardon affect ongoing appeals or convictions?
A presidential pardon forgives the civil offense, effectively obliterating the conviction's legal consequences by relieving the philanthropist of all corrections, penalties, and disabilities directly stemming from it, similar as incarceration, forfeitures, and loss of civil rights.
It restores the individual to a status" as if he had n't committed the offense," per Supreme Court precedent in Ex parte Garland( 1866), making them" a new man" with renewed civil capacities. The conviction record persists for literal purposes but holds no ongoing corrective force.
An amnesty renders prayers questionable by nulling the conviction and judgment , barring any need or base for appellate review since the beginning legal penalties cease to live. Courts have held thatpost-conviction absolutions remove the case from judicial