The Honduran president was pardoned by Trump for drug trafficking and jailed, his wife said

A former Honduran president convicted of helping to smuggle 400 tons of cocaine into the United States has been released from prison after pardoned by President Donald Trumphis wife said on Tuesday.

Juan Orlando Hernandez he was released from a West Virginia prison on Monday and “became a free man again,” his wife announced on social media. The US Bureau of Prisons website shows the release of a man matching Hernandez’s name.

Mr Trump The Trustion’s Plamrovalial Pardon As The US President Simultaneously Orders Boat bombing In the Caribbean suspected of being in possession of drugs. He also largely backs a candidate from Hernandez’s party in the state of Honduras, which is ongoing Electoral Count of Voters.

Mr. Trump explained his decision on social media by posting that “according to many people I respect very much,” Hernández being highly respected, “was treated very badly and unfairly.”

In March of last year, Hernandez was found guilty in a US court of planning to import cocaine In the US he had worked for two years as the leader of an American nation of about ten million people. Hernández was convicted of his conviction and served his time in a US prison, Hazelton in West Virginia.

Shortly after the announcement of Mr.

It was the same home where the Honduran authorities deported him in 2022 just a few months after leaving office. He was detained in the United States pending trial.

Trump’s pardon has drawn praise from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, of Louisiana, was critical of the pardon, saying on Sunday in Medical Media, “Why would we pardon [Hernandez] And then follow Maduro with running drugs in the United States? Always lock the drug runner! Don’t understand why he is forgiven. “

“This is shocking,” Sen. Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, he said apologetically “Face the nation with Margaret Brennan.”

“He was convicted in a federal court in the United States,” said Kaine, the top foreign relations member of the Senate Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. “One of the pieces of evidence was his statement that was close to those close to the one who wanted to rip off the gringos, who grew up with tons of crime, who encouraged that President Trump doesn’t care about narcotrafficking. It suggests that the expulsion is now being sold by this white house.”

Mr Trump defended the deployment of the whistleblowers in a joint statement on Sunday, saying, “the majority of people in Honduras say he is the president of the country, and I said he is the president of the country.”

When asked what evidence has been seen to show that Hernandez’s case was set up, “say any country you want, if someone sells drugs in that country, that doesn’t mean you imprison the President for the rest of his life.”

White House Press Paress Karoline Leavett said on Monday that “there was an undercover bid,” alleging that there were “certain” details that had come out during the Hernandez trial.