Donald’s Puzzling Pardon Announcement
Last week, President Trump announced that he intends to grant an unconditional pardon to Juan Orlando Hernandez, a former president of Honduras who had conspired with El Chapo’s notorious Sinaboa drug cartel to assist its smuggling of 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S. In return for his efforts, he received political contributions from the cartel in addition to countless bribes from drug traffickers, including a reported $1 million that was hand-delivered to him in bundles of $50 and $100 bills. At the conclusion of his term in office, the succeeding Honduran government agreed to extradite him to the U.S. where he was tried, convicted and sentenced to 45 years in prison. It’s beyond ironic that Trump would pardon a convicted felon for his role in facilitating the smuggling of vast quantities of cocaine into the U.S. while at the same time he was summarily killing scores of Venezuelans for transporting relatively small amounts of cocaine across the Caribbean to an unknown destination (possibly Europe), all without seeking Congressional approval or even presenting any evidence justifying his actions.
Just as Trump has offered no evidence that the roughly 20 Venezuelan boats he caused to be attacked were transporting cocaine to the U.S., his stated rationale for pardoning Hernandez was equally uninformative. He simply posted a message on social media saying that “According to many people that I greatly respect,” Hernandez was “treated very harshly and unfairly.” Not surprisingly, Trump’s statement omitted any mention of either the number or names of those who had urged him to pardon Hernandez.
More importantly, Trump’s statement also ignored the extensive evidence adduced at Hernandez’s two week trial held in Federal District Court in New York City. That evidence documented how Hernandez used his power as Honduras’ President to facilitate the transportation of cocaine produced in South America and flown to Honduras before being moved through Mexico by the El Chapos’ Sinaboa Cartel on its way into the U.S. It documented how he caused the Honduran military and police to capture and eliminate drug traffickers that competed with the Sinaboa Cartel.
At his trial Hernandez argued “The prosecutors and agents did not do the due diligence in the investigation to know the whole truth.” He concluded by saying, “The investigation and trial against me is full of mistakes, of injustices that have become a lynching through the U.S. judicial system.” These remarks are remarkably similar to what Trump had claimed about the four criminal prosecutions initiated against him during the Biden administration.
Trump’s proposed pardon, however, was not just ironic when juxtaposed against his attacks on the Venezuelan boats; it also undermines his claim to be our nation’s guardian against murderers and drug traffickers. You need only recall that when Trump began his 2016 presidential campaign, he announced that he would stop the flow of Mexican murderers, rapist and drug dealers into the U.S. by building a great wall across our southern border. Thus, Hernandez’s pardon seems both counter-productive as well as inconsistent with one his principal campaign pledges.
Trump’s pardon of Hernandez is also likely to engender another problem. Last month’s special elections were a total disaster for the Republican Party. In those elections, the Republican candidates in the governor races in New Jersey and Virginia lost by 14% and 13%, respectively. Also to the disappointment of Republican members of the Senate and House, California voters authorized the creation of five Congressional Districts that are likely to swing Republican House seats to the Democrats. These developments have left Republican legislators very apprehensive about their chances of retaining control of both houses of the Congress as well as their individual chances being re-elected in 2026. Trump’s announcement that he intends to pardon a convicted international drug criminal is only likely to upset their supporters and heighten their concerns regarding their reelections.
What could have prompted President Trump to announce that he planned to take an action that could unleash so many adverse consequences. First, it must be appreciated that Trump only announced that he was going to pardon Hernandez. If he had already decided to issue such a pardon, there was no need to even make an announcement of his future intention to do so. He could have simply issued the pardon as he recently did for billionaires Changpeng Zhao and Trevor Milton without any advance notice. This raises the possibility that Trump’s motive was simply to redirect the public’s attention away from the release of the Epstein files which he has been vehemently resisting. The more outrageous and non-sensical his announced future action, the more successful it would likely be in changing the public conversation.
The most apparent reason for his pardons of Zhao and Milton is that they are both very wealthy individuals and in a good position to funnel money to Trump. There have already been numerous examples of Trump’s receiving valuable gifts in return for presidential favors he has bestowed upon his benefactors. Think of his willingness to authorize the sale of advanced U.S. computer chips and aircraft to oil kingdoms that have showered him with gifts. His announced intention of granting a pardon to Hernandez could fall into this category as Hernandez made many millions of dollars helping El Chapo sell cocaine in the U.S. Based upon the appreciative remarks made by Hernandez’s attorney, it would appear that Hernandez seems prepared to share that wealth with Trump in return for a pardon.
If this sounds like pure conjecture, you should take note of Trump’s last week grant of clemency to David Gentile who was convicted of operating his $1.6 billion investment company (GPB Capital Holdings) as a quasi-Ponzi scheme. Over 10,000 investors had been lured into investing in it by claims that its substantial monthly distributions were being fully funded by its earning. In reality, a portion of those distributions included monies received from recent investors.
A co-conspirator in Gentile’s fraud was Jeffry Schneider, a registered broker-dealer and investment advisor, who had primary responsibility for soliciting investors. The two were tried together in a New York Federal District Court, with Gentile receiving a seven-year prison sentence and Schneider receiving a six-year sentence. It’s not clear why Gentile received a longer sentence, but it would appear that he was the primary beneficiary of the fraudulent scheme because Schneider’s net worth is reported to only be $2,500. This may also explain why Schneider didn’t receive a pardon from Trump.
One should also not overlook the possibility that Trump may actually like Hernandez. After all, he used his powers as the president of Honduras to generate enormous wealth for himself. In Trump’s mind, any man who does the things that Hernandez did must be a terrific leader as he knows how to take full advantage of the resources available to him. In addition, like Trump, Hernandez contended that his conviction was the product of a weaponized governmental attack. Accordingly, it’s really easy to understand why Trump might feel a common bond with him. Alternatively, Trump’s dangling the possibility of a pardon for Hernandez might simply be his way of negotiating upward the price that Hernandez might be willing to pay for his pardon.
Clearly, granting a pardon to Hernandez will cause some serious repercussions. Such considerations, however, rarely deter Trump from acting. Indeed, he has a long history of taking actions that provide an immediate benefit to him without concerning himself with the possible adverse consequences that might flow from his actions. Consider his escape from his mismanagement of his Atlantic City Casino empire, his avoiding impeachment for his efforts to enlist the Ukraine government to help him win the 2020 presidential elections, his avoiding accountability for having taken classified government documents when he vacated the White House in 2021; and his re-election in 2024 after having orchestrated a multi-faceted conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Indeed, these escapes from almost certain accountability might prompt you to think of Trump as a political Houdini.
At this point it is not clear as to when, or even if, Trump will issue a pardon to Hernandez. Trump has frequently made statements of his intentions only to abandon them depending on the public feedback he receives. Indeed, he may now be faced with a similar balancing act, measuring the volume of the public outcry that will be unleashed against the amount of the compensation he might receive in return.