Trump pardons Wanda Vázquez Garced and grants 20 other clemencies

President Donald Trump granted clemency on Jan. 16–17 to former Puerto Rico governor Wanda Vázquez Garced and a slate of at least 20 other individuals, including two of her co-defendants and convicted defendant Adriana Camberos. The White House said the moves were corrective actions in cases the administration described as politically motivated.

Vázquez Garced, who became governor of Puerto Rico in August 2019 after the resignation of Ricardo Rosselló and served until 2021, had been indicted in 2022 on federal charges tied to her 2020 gubernatorial campaign. Prosecutors had alleged conspiracy, federal programs bribery and honest-services wire fraud, saying payments and discussions between December 2019 and June 2020 formed part of an effort to finance her campaign. In August 2025 she pleaded guilty to a reduced campaign-finance-related charge and stood scheduled for sentencing later in January 2026 when the president issued clemency.

The presidential actions also covered Julio Martín Herrera Velutini, a Venezuelan-Italian banker, and former FBI agent Mark Rossini, both of whom had been entangled in the same investigation. Herrera Velutini’s attorney said his client was "profoundly grateful" for the pardon. The package included Adriana Camberos, whose record the administration noted involved a 2017 counterfeiting conviction in California and a separate 2024 fraud conviction; White House officials said Mr. Trump had previously commuted a sentence in another matter for her.

Justice Department proseuction of the case had evolved markedly since the 2022 indictments. The department’s Public Integrity Section originally brought the charges but has been substantially reorganized, with many of its prosecutors reassigned. As the case neared trial, prosecutors reached plea agreements with Vázquez Garced and several co-defendants in August 2025, reducing the charges that would be resolved at sentencing. The White House has framed that trajectory and the eventual pardons as proof the prosecutions were improper examples of "political persecution" or "political prosecution."

Materials accompanying the clemency decisions asserted that "there was never any element of a quid pro quo" in conversations cited by investigators and characterized some interactions as policy discussions rather than corrupt exchanges. Defense lawyers in the case had argued that key allegations lacked evidentiary support as the prosecutions progressed.

The pardons immediately provoked sharp criticism in Puerto Rico and among advocates of government accountability. Puerto Rico’s resident commissioner in the U.S. House, Pablo José Hernández Rivera, wrote that "impunity protects and promotes corruption" and that the pardon "weakens public integrity, erodes trust in the justice system, and offends those of us who believe in honest government." The decision is likely to amplify long-running debates on the island about corruption, U.S. oversight and the balance of political clemency with the enforcement of public-integrity laws.

The Vázquez Garced pardon comes amid a broader pattern of wide-ranging clemency grants by the administration, a practice that has drawn scrutiny from legal scholars and lawmakers who warn of long-term consequences for public trust and prosecutorial independence. For Puerto Rico, already grappling with economic and fiscal challenges, the episode underscores the complex intersection of local politics, federal law and the island’s unique political relationship with Washington.