{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.kaine.senate.gov/press-releases/kaine-colleagues-condemn-trumps-pardon-of-ex-honduran-president-and-drug-kingpin-juan-orlando-hernandez", "Kaine, Colleagues Condemn Trump\u2019s Pardon of Ex-Honduran President and Drug Kingpin Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez", "2025-12-05", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "VA", "Tim Kaine", "K000384", "www.kaine.senate.gov", "kaine", "https://www.kaine.senate.gov/news", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), who lived in Honduras in 1980 and 1981 and serves as Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, and eleven Democratic Senators introduced a resolution condemning President Donald Trump\u2019s pardon of Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez, the former two-term President of Honduras who was sentenced to 45 years in prison and fined $8 million for drug trafficking and weapons conspiracy charges. The resolution emphasizes how President Trump\u2019s pardon of Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019s vast crimes weakens the rule of law and severely harms the United States\u2019 credibility in combating global drug trafficking.\n\nThe resolution also outlines how President Trump\u2019s pardon is an affront to the extraordinary efforts of federal law enforcement and judicial officials who investigated and prosecuted Hern\u00e1ndez, as well as to the jurors who performed their civic duty in convicting him.\n\n\u201cTrump\u2019s pardon of Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez \u2013 a narcotrafficking kingpin who bragged about \u2018shoving the drugs up the noses of the gringos\u2019 as he flooded U.S. communities with more than 400 tons of cocaine \u2013 is disgusting,\u201d said Kaine. \u201cThis pardon is so bizarre that it\u2019s difficult to fathom any reason why this would happen other than that someone in Trump\u2019s circle is personally benefitting from it. Convicted drug kingpins should be in prison, end of story.\u201d\n\nHern\u00e1ndez was at the center of one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world for nearly two decades. During his tenure as President of Honduras and in the Honduran National Congress, Hern\u00e1ndez abused his positions and authority to facilitate the importation of over 400 tons of cocaine into the United States\u2014enough for approximately 4.5 billion individual doses.\n\nAs President, Hern\u00e1ndez also selectively supported and took credit for extraditions to the United States of certain drug traffickers who threatened his grip on power, including directing the Honduran National Police and military to protect smugglers who paid him off, promising that he would shield them from extradition to the United States. Hern\u00e1ndez and his co-conspirators were convicted and sentenced to prison in the United States for their abuse of Honduran institutions to protect and grow their conspiracy.\n\nThe resolution was led by U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-VT) and cosponsored by Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and John Fetterman (D-PA).\n\nThis week, Kaine gave a floor speech denouncing Trump\u2019s pardon of Hern\u00e1ndez and the illegal strikes on boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean. Click here to watch the full speech.\n\nFull text of the resolution can be found here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.kaine.senate.gov/press-releases/kaine-colleagues-condemn-trumps-pardon-of-ex-honduran-president-and-drug-kingpin-juan-orlando-hernandez"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.592087559401989, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}