President Trump has granted a full pardon to former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, a U.S. official confirmed, and the Bureau of Prisons said Hernández was released Monday. Hernández had been serving a 45‑year sentence after a U.S. jury found him guilty of conspiring to import large quantities of cocaine into the United States.
Prosecutors said Hernández used his position at the top of Honduras’s government to facilitate shipments of tons of cocaine and to accept millions of dollars from violent trafficking groups. In sentencing, a federal judge called him a two‑faced politician hungry for power, and Attorney General Merrick Garland said the former president had turned Honduras into a narco‑state where traffickers operated with near‑total impunity.
The pardon prompted swift criticism from lawmakers and policy experts who argued it undercuts U.S. rhetoric and actions targeting drug trafficking in the region. Critics pointed to the administration’s tough posture on narcotics linked to Venezuela and said pardoning a high‑profile convicted trafficker sends a contradictory message. Sen. Tim Kaine, who leads the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, called the move shocking and said it suggested the president was indifferent to narcotrafficking.
Hernández, who served two terms as Honduras’s president, overlapped briefly with Trump’s first term. During that period he moved Honduras’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, an action that won favor in Washington. Trump has publicly criticized the prosecution, saying advisers told him Hernández was treated harshly and unfairly.
Political adviser Roger Stone reportedly lobbied for the pardon, delivering a letter in which Hernández asserted he was the victim of a wrongful conviction and “lawfare” by the Biden administration. Trump teased the clemency on Truth Social, posting congratulations to Hernández ahead of the official announcement.
Hernández has consistently denied the charges and was pursuing appeals while incarcerated at the U.S. Penitentiary Hazelton in West Virginia.
The pardon adds to scrutiny of Trump’s use of clemency powers since returning to the presidency. He has issued pardons and commutations to a number of political allies and supporters—ranging from campaign loyalists to business figures and participants in efforts to overturn the 2020 election—drawing accusations that his acts of mercy serve political interests as much as legal relief.