Overview
- U.S. Bureau of Prisons records and a spokesperson confirmed Hernández was released from the Hazelton federal facility on December 1 after President Trump granted a full, unconditional pardon.
- Under established U.S. precedent, the pardon nullifies his federal conviction and bars re‑prosecution for the same offenses, though Honduran asset seizures and proceedings are unchanged and his current whereabouts remain unconfirmed.
- Hernández had been extradited in 2022 and sentenced in March 2024 to 45 years after New York prosecutors said he enabled roughly 400 tons of cocaine to pass through Honduras to the United States.
- Trump defended the clemency as correcting a supposed “setup” and announced it as he publicly backed Partido Nacional candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura during Honduras’s unresolved vote count.
- Democratic lawmakers condemned the move as hypocritical given ongoing lethal U.S. maritime strikes on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean that have drawn scrutiny from rights groups.