"Juan Orlando Hernández was sentenced in 2024 to 45 years in prison after being convicted for conspiring to distribute over 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S. During a Nov. 30 exchange with reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said Hernández had been "set up" by former U.S. President Joe Biden's administration. "If somebody sells drugs in that country, that doesn't mean you arrest the president and put him in jail for the rest of his life," Trump said, without providing evidence of a "set-up.""
"Trump inaccurately stated the nature of the former Honduran president's arrest and conviction: The U.S. didn't try Hernández after his presidency because he sold drugs in Honduras but because he was deeply involved in the transit of illicit drugs into the U.S. The White House framed Trump's planned pardon as an effort to correct a miscarriage of justice, and at a Dec. 1 press briefing Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized Hernández's three-week jury trial as being scant on evidence."
U.S. forces continued operations against so-called narco-terrorists in the Caribbean while President Trump announced plans to pardon former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández. Hernández was indicted, extradited in April 2022, and in 2024 was convicted and sentenced to 540 months for cocaine importation and related offenses tied to the transit of more than 400 tons of cocaine into the United States. Trump claimed Hernández was "set up" by the Biden administration and argued a president should not be jailed for drug sales, a characterization deemed inaccurate. The White House called the pardon corrective; a judge denied Hernández's motion for a new trial.
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