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Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández thanked President Donald Trump for pardoning him, writing on social media that he was "wrongfully convicted."
"My profound gratitude goes to President @realDonaldTrump for having the courage to defend justice at a moment when a weaponized system refused to acknowledge the truth. You reviewed the facts, recognized the injustice, and acted with conviction. You changed my life, sir, and I will never forget it," Hernández wrote on X in his first remarks since he was released by the Bureau of Prisons.
"I was set up by the Biden Harris administration and the deep state through a rigged trial. There was no real evidence, only the accusations of criminals who sought revenge. Yet the truth of my innocence prevailed," he said in part.
Hernández was sentenced to 45 years in prison in June 2024 for conspiring to distribute more than 400 tons of cocaine and for related firearms offenses.
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Former Attorney General Merrick Garland said the ex-two-term president used his power to support one of the largest and most violent drug trafficking conspiracies in the world.
"Hernández received millions of dollars of drug money from some of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking organizations in Honduras, Mexico, and elsewhere, and used those bribes to fuel his rise in Honduran politics," the Department of Justice said.
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Hernández's brother, Juan Antonio Hernández Alvarado, was also convicted in October 2019 and sentenced to life in prison.
Trump said he pardoned the former Honduran leader because "a lot of people in Honduras" asked him to, adding he feels "very good about it."
"Well, he was the president, and they had some drugs being sold in their country, and because he was the president, they went after him - that was a Biden horrible witch hunt," Trump told reporters Tuesday.
Several GOP lawmakers criticized the pardon amid the White House's targeting of alleged drug boats off the coast of Venezuela.
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Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., criticized the decision to pardon Hernández, saying it made little sense to free him while the U.S. continues to pursue Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on federal narco-terrorism charges.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., also criticized the move in an interview on CNN, saying he couldn't understand how the U.S. could "threaten a potential land war against a thug and a narco-terrorist who plays like he's the president of Venezuela, and then go easy on someone whose investigation that led to an indictment started in the Trump administration."
