Trump stands by pardon of former Honduran president convicted in US: 'It was a Biden setup'

WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump on Sunday, November 30, defended his decision to pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who reportedly once boasted about moving narcotic substances into the US.

Trump stood by his Friday announcement granting a "full and complete pardon" to Hernandez, who was convicted last year of trafficking and firearms offenses and sentenced to 45 years.

Trump says people of Honduras thought Juan Orlando Hernandez was 'set up'

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he was asked by "many of the people of Honduras" to pardon Hernandez, claiming they "said it was a Biden setup."

The president suggested that the accusation that Hernandez was a trafficker was only made "because he was the president of the country."

It may be mentioned that Hernandez' prosecution had started during Trump's first term but wrapped up under Joe Biden's administration.

In 2022, Hernandez was extradited to the US and sentenced in a New York federal courtroom two years later for taking bribes from traffickers to move “well over approximately 4.5 billion individual doses of c**aine."

Trump insisted that "the people of Honduras really thought he was set up, and it was a terrible thing."

He said, "He was the president of the country, and they basically said he was a d**g dealer because he was the president of the country, and they said it was a Biden administration setup. And I looked at the facts, and I agreed with that."

Biden's DOJ accused Juan Orlando Hernandez of abusing his power to further trafficking

The Justice Department, under the presidency of Biden, said Hernandez "abused his power to further one of the largest and most violent d**g trafficking conspiracies in the world," helping heavily armed traffickers smuggle in as much as 400 tons of those substances into the US while publicly supporting anti-narcotics efforts in Central America.

In 2021, a witness had recounted a statement by Hernandez: "We are going to stuff the d**gs up the gringos' noses, and they're never even going to know it."

When a reporter asked Trump for evidence of the setup claim, he responded, "They could say that you take any country you want, if somebody sells d**gs in that country, that doesn't mean you arrest the president and put him in jail for the rest of his life. That includes this country."

Interestingly, Hernandez's pardon comes as the Trump administration puts increasing focus on vessels in the Caribbean suspected of links to organized cartels.

Meanwhile, CNN reports that Pete Hegseth’s Department of Defense has been responsible for at least 83 deaths due to 21 strikes since September.