Published On 16 Jan 2026
The White House has confirmed to United States media that President Donald Trump plans to grant a pardon to a former governor of Puerto Rico, Wanda Vazquez Garced.
On Friday, CBS News broke the story that a pardon was imminent, and Trump administration officials have since tied the pardon to the president’s campaign against what he considers “lawfare”.
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“This entire case is an example of political persecution,” a Trump official told the news agency Reuters, on condition of anonymity.
Trump has pardoned a string of right-wing officials and allies since returning to office for a second term, including former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez – who was convicted of federal drug charges – and supporters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, to protest his 2020 election defeat.
With more than 1,700 pardons and acts of clemency granted over the last year alone, Trump is on track to surpass his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, for the most pardons offered. Biden, over his four-year term, announced 4,245 acts of clemency, the most of any president in modern history.
But news of Vazquez’s pardon stirred dissent among Puerto Rico’s political opposition, including Pablo Jose Hernandez Rivera, who represents the island territory in the US House of Representatives.
“Impunity protects and promotes corruption,” Hernandez wrote on social media.
“The pardon granted to former governor Wanda Vazquez weakens public integrity, erodes trust in the justice system, and offends those of us who believe in honest government.”
Puerto Rico, as a territory, only has non-voting representation in the US Congress, and Trump has had a tumultuous relationship with the island.
In August, Trump removed the five Democratic members