President Trump has officially pardoned former Honduran President, Juan Orlando Hernández, who US officials said was at the center of one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world.
A White House official not authorized to speak on the record confirmed the pardon was granted and the Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed his release on Monday.
Hernández, who served two terms as the leader of the Central American nation, had been sentenced to 45 years for conspiring to import cocaine to the United States.
The pardon of such a high-profile convicted drug trafficker, however, has led to accusations of deceit and hypocrisy by the Trump administration as it comes while the president and his team continue to escalate his military campaign against drug trafficking out of Venezuela.
Critics argue the pardon of Hernández undermines the administration's claims that they are focused on ending drug trafficking. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, called the decision "shocking."
"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," Kaine said Sunday on CBS' 'Face the Nation.'
Hernández's time in office briefly overlapped with Trump's first term. In that time, Hernández fostered support from the Trump administration after joining a small group of nations and moved the Honduran embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Trump criticized Hernández's prosecution, telling reporters last week that people he respects told him Hernández was "treated very harshly and unfairly."
One of those people is likely Roger Stone, his long time political adviser, who lobbied for Hernández release. Stone shared on his radio show that he delivered a four-page letter from Hernández claiming he was the victim of wrongful conviction and "lawfare by the Biden-Harris administration."
Trump teased the pardon in a social media post on last week: "CONGRATULATIONS TO JUAN ORLANDO HERNANDEZ ON YOUR UPCOMING PARDON," he wrote…. "MAKE HONDURAS GREAT AGAIN!"
According to court documents, Hernández abused his position to facilitate importation of tons of cocaine into the United States. In exchange, he received millions of dollars in drug money from some of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking organizations in the hemisphere.
Judge P. Kevin Castel, who presided over the case, described Hernández as a "two-faced politician hungry for power." Former Attorney General Merrick Garland stated that Hernández "abused his presidency to operate the country as a narco-state where violent traffickers operated with near-total impunity."
Hernández has long maintained that he was innocent of the charges. He had been appealing his conviction while serving his sentence at the U.S. Penitentiary Hazelton in West Virginia.
It is far from the first time one of Trump's pardons has drawn scrutiny. He has pardoned a number of political and business allies since returning to office, prompting some accusations that Trump's operating a pay to play scheme.
They include MAGA loyalists, a cryptocurrency executive with ties to his family's crypto firm and dozens of allies who tried to overturn his 2020 election loss to former President Joe Biden.
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