(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
On Sunday a Republican senator questioned why President Donald Trump pardoned former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was serving 45 years on drug trafficking and weapons charges.
Hernandez was convicted in U.S. court in March 2024 of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, according to CBS News. He had been appealing his conviction while serving his time at the U.S. Penitentiary in Hazelton, West Virginia.
“Why would we pardon this guy and then go after Maduro for running drugs into the United States? Lock up every drug runner! Don’t understand why he is being pardoned,” Cassidy wrote.
Cassidy isn’t the only lawmaker questioning how the pardon supports Trump’s proclaimed war on drugs.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) told Margaret Brennan Sunday, “One of the bits of evidence was [Hernandez’s] statement that was picked up by those near to him that he wanted to shove drugs up the nose of gringos and flood the United States with cocaine, more than 400 tons. He was the leader of one of the largest criminal enterprises that has ever been subject to a conviction in U.S. courts, and less than one year into his sentence, President Trump is pardoning him, suggesting that President Trump cares nothing about narcotrafficking.”
Trump posted on social media Friday that, “many people that I greatly respect” told him Hernandez was “treated very harshly and unfairly” by federal prosecutors.
On Air Force One Sunday, Trump defended his decision to reporters, saying, “Many of the people of Honduras said it was a Biden setup. … He was the president of the country, and they basically said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country. And they said it was a Biden administration setup, and I looked at the facts and I agreed with them.”
Hernandez’s pardon comes as the U.S. teeters on the brink of war with Venezuela. The Trump administration has claimed it’s building up forces in the area to stem the trafficking of fentanyl into the United States, even though experts claim that particular drug flows through Mexico. After months of U.S. airstrikes on boats in the Caribbean, Trump is reportedly considering ground action in Venezuela.
Trump confirmed Sunday that he spoke with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by phone, but did not give details of the call. The Miami Herald reported that Maduro and his family have been guaranteed safe passage if he steps down immediately.
