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Trump to pardon former Puerto Rico governor Vazquez

By Thomson Reuters Jan 16, 2026 | 11:17 AM

WASHINGTON, Jan 16 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump is issuing a pardon ‍to Puerto Rico’s former Governor Wanda Vazquez Garced, who was previously indicted in a federal corruption case, a ‌White House official ‌confirmed on Friday.

“This entire case is an example of political prosecution,” a White House official said ​of Vazquez, who was arrested in August ‍2022 on bribery ​charges related to ​the financing of her gubernatorial ‍campaign in 2020.

Trump is also pardoning Vazquez’s co-defendants Julio Martin Herrera Velutini and Mark Rossini, CBS News, ‍which first reported the development, said.

Trump has granted a flurry of ‍pardons ‍since assuming office ​last year, many ​of ⁠them to white-collar criminals ‌and political allies.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington, Ryan Patrick Jones and Bhargav Acharya in Toronto; Editing by ⁠Caitlin Webber)