President Donald Trump is issuing a pardon to former Puerto Rican governor Wanda Vazquez, who was arrested in 2022 on bribery charges related to the financing of her campaign in 2020, according to a new report.
CBS news noted that last August she pleaded guilty to accepting a campaign donation from a foreigner. The Justice Department accused her of taking part in the scheme along with a political consultant and the president of an international bank, as well as a former FBI agent. The consultant and the president, Frances Diaz, also pleaded guilty back then.
The outlet noted in 2022 that Vazquez was promised financial support for her campaign in exchange for the dismissal of the Commissioner of Financial Institution and appointment to one more palatable to a Venezuelan-Italian bank.
Vazquez followed through and was then accused of appointing a former consultant for the bank to the post. Her campaign then received $300,000 that were paid to political consultants to support it. All involved were charged with conspiracy, federal programs bribery and honest services wire fraud.
Reuters confirmed the pardon, quoting a White House official who said that the "entire case is an example of political prosecution."
Vazquez denied any wrongdoing back then, saying: "I can tell the people of Puerto Rico that I have not committed any crime, that I have not engaged in any illegal or incorrect conduct, as I have always said."
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