From a U.S. prison cell, Honduras' ex-president secured a likely pardon for drug trafficking thanks to a letter he penned praising President Trump — whom he called "Your Excellency" — and a persistent lobbying campaign by longtime Trump pal Roger Stone.
Why it matters: The surprise announcement of Juan Orlando Hernandez's looming pardon is a window into the unorthodox, norm-shattering way Trump grants clemency.
Driving the news: Trump announced Friday that he planned to pardon Hernandez ahead of Sunday's elections in Honduras, where the White House backed the right-wing National Party that Hernandez led as president from 2014-2022.
- National Party candidate Nasry "Tito" Asfura is narrowly leading a center-right candidate as votes are being counted in a three-way race, according to the BBC.
Zoom in: Shortly after Trump took office in January, Stone wrote three separate Substack posts calling for the pardon of Hernandez, who was indicted the day he left office in 2022 and extradited to the U.S. to face cocaine-trafficking and weapons charges.
- Stone cast Hernandez as a victim of leftist "lawfare" in Honduras and in President Biden's administration.
- Stone told Axios that on Friday he reached out to Trump and reiterated those points. Stone claimed a pardon announcement would energize the National Party and called Trump's attention to Hernandez's four-page letter begging for clemency.
- Hours later, at 4 p.m., Trump posted on Truth Social that he'd endorse Asfura. Less than 20 minutes later, he posted that he'd pardon Hernandez.
- "It was a Biden setup," Trump told reporters Sunday about the case against Hernandez, who's serving a 45-year sentence.
Zoom in: In his letter to Trump, Hernandez hits notes of praise that Trump is known to appreciate: "I have found strength from you, Sir, your resilience to get back in that great office notwithstanding the persecution and prosecution you faced."
- Hernandez recalls the close working relationship they had during Trump's first term, when Trump credited his Honduran counterpart with fighting drug trafficking.
- "The [drug] cases involving high-ranking officials of the radical left, Libre Party, were not prosecuted," Hernandez wrote Trump.
- Hernandez said his case "advanced only because the Biden-Harris DOJ pursued a political agenda to empower its ideological allies in Honduras," Hernandez writes.
- Hernandez also claims he had ineffective legal representation. The lawyer his letter targets didn't return a call or email from Axios.
Yes, but: Hernandez was convicted in 2024 after a jury trial in Manhattan federal court. He testified in court, but he didn't dwell on his narrative about political persecution, according to trial records and those familiar with the case.
- The case against Hernandez initially involved then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Emile Bove, who went on to represent Trump personally, then worked in Trump's Justice Department as a top official. Bove now is a Trump-appointed federal judge.
- Bove also prosecuted Hernandez's brother, Juan Antonio Hernandez, during Trump's first term.
The big picture: On a political level, Trump's endorsement of Asfura is about the Latin American chessboard. He supports right-wing governments and opposes left-wing ones.
- Honduras' outgoing president, Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, is allied with longtime U.S. foes in Latin America: Cuba, Nicaragua and, especially as of late, Venezuela.
- Castro's Libre Party successor is headed for a third-place finish in Sunday's election.
Zoom out: The looming pardon for a convicted drug-trafficking former Latin American president complicates Trump's messaging about confronting Venezuela's dictator, Nicolas Maduro, who was indicted as a drug trafficker in 2020 (another former case of Bove's that partly grew out of the original Hernandez case).
- Asked about the apparent conflict Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the cases are different because "Hernandez was set up. This was a clear Biden over-prosecution. ... His conviction was lawfare by the leftist party who struck a deal with the Biden-Harris administration.'"
What they're saying: Stone told Axios he won't make any money from a Hernandez pardon and that he flagged it to Trump because it was an injustice. He wouldn't disclose what he told Trump or what the president said to him.
- "All I did here was pass the letter on, in addition to publishing on Substack" Stone said.
- "I didn't know if the pardon was going to happen," he added. "But I think the president was moved by the story of how bad this prosecution was."
The intrigue: Others in Trump's orbit are concerned that a pardon, at least at this stage, is needless and counterproductive.
- One source said political consultant Dick Morris, who was involved with the effort to secure Trump's endorsement of Asfura, fretted to White House staffers about a Hernandez pardon. Morris didn't return a call or text message from Axios.
- "How we justify this is really hard, considering Maduro," another Trump adviser said.
- "But maybe this is a message to Maduro? If Trump is willing to take the heat by basically canceling this, he's telling Maduro he can do the same to him if he just plays ball."
