President Trump has officially pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, whom U.S. officials said was at the center of one of the largest and most violent drug‑trafficking conspiracies in the world. A White House official not authorized to speak on the record confirmed the pardon, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed his release on Monday.
Hernández, who served two terms as Honduras’s president, had been sentenced to 45 years for conspiring to import cocaine into the United States. Court documents said he abused his position to facilitate the importation of tons of cocaine and received millions of dollars from major, violent trafficking organizations. Judge P. Kevin Castel described Hernández as a “two‑faced politician hungry for power,” and former Attorney General Merrick Garland said Hernández “abused his presidency to operate the country as a narco‑state where violent traffickers operated with near‑total impunity.”
The pardon drew immediate criticism as hypocritical given the Trump administration’s intensified rhetoric and actions against drug trafficking from Venezuela. Critics say pardoning a high‑profile convicted trafficker undermines those claims. Sen. Tim Kaine, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, called the decision “shocking,” saying that pardoning the leader of “one of the largest criminal enterprises” suggests the president does not care about narcotrafficking.
Hernández’s presidency briefly overlapped with Trump’s first term. During that time Hernández moved the Honduran embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a move that fostered goodwill with the Trump administration. Trump has publicly criticized Hernández’s prosecution, saying people he respects told him Hernández was “treated very harshly and unfairly.”
Political adviser Roger Stone is reported to have lobbied for Hernández’s release, delivering a four‑page letter in which Hernández maintained he was the victim of wrongful conviction and “lawfare by the Biden‑Harris administration.” Trump hinted at the pardon on Truth Social last week, posting, “CONGRATULATIONS TO JUAN ORLANDO HERNANDEZ ON YOUR UPCOMING PARDON… MAKE HONDURAS GREAT AGAIN!”
Hernández has long denied the charges and had been appealing his conviction while serving his sentence at the U.S. Penitentiary Hazelton in West Virginia.
The pardon adds to scrutiny of Trump’s clemency decisions since returning to office. He has granted pardons to a range of political and business allies, including MAGA loyalists, a cryptocurrency executive with ties to his family’s crypto firm, and dozens involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election, prompting accusations that his pardons serve political favors rather than impartial justice.