{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.welch.senate.gov/welch-leads-resolution-condemning-trumps-pardon-of-ex-honduran-president-and-drug-kingpin-juan-orlando-hernandez/", "Welch Leads Resolution Condemning Trump\u2019s Pardon of Ex-Honduran President and Drug Kingpin Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez", "2025-12-04", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "VT", "Peter Welch", "W000800", "www.welch.senate.gov", "welch", "https://www.welch.senate.gov/category/press-release/page/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) today led eleven Democratic Senators in introducing a resolution condemning President 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 Senators\u2019 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\u201cPresident Trump\u2019s pardon of Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez is outrageous. The evidence was overwhelming that throughout his career he abused his office to protect violent drug cartels in return for bribes to finance his political ambitions. His detractors were either extradited or killed. Criminality on this scale\u2014facilitating the importation of massive amounts of cocaine to the U.S. and the corruption of his country\u2019s police force\u2014should be universally condemned,\u201d said Senator Welch. \u201cLet\u2019s hope our next President uses the pardon power to correct manifest injustice as the framers intended, not to reward friends, cronies, and drug kingpins.\u201d\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 Senator 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\n\u201cPresident Trump\u2019s decision to pardon Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez doesn\u2019t just seek to whitewash the crimes of a man who helped poison our communities with illegal drugs\u2014it lays bare the inconsistency of President Trump\u2019s entire counternarcotics efforts,\u201d said Senator Shaheen, Ranking Member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. \u201cYou cannot claim to be waging a tough fight against traffickers while simultaneously freeing someone convicted of facilitating one of the most notorious drug trafficking conspiracies in decades. The American people want real solutions to the drug epidemic, but this only makes us less safe and undermines the work of law enforcement and our partners abroad.\u201d\n\n\u201cPresident Trump\u2019s pardoning of Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez, a known drug smuggling conspirator who was set to spend over 40 years in jail, is the latest abuse of pardon power by the president. By using the pardon power as a means of rewarding wealthy donors, family members, allies, benefiting himself personally, or in this case trying to influence the elections in Honduras, Trump is using the pardon power to commit injustice rather than correcting it,\u201d said Senator Schiff.\n\n\u201cJuan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez once boasted that he \u2018would stuff the drugs up the gringos\u2019 noses\u2019, he accepted a million-dollar bribe from El Chapo to allow cocaine shipments to pass through Honduras destined to the United States, had a man killed in prison to protect him, and orchestrated a vast trafficking conspiracy that prosecutors said raked in millions of dollars for cartels,\u201d said Senator Durbin. \u201cJuan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez is the worst of the worst and the fact the President of the United States pardoned him is appalling. This is not an action by a President trying to keep America safe from narcotics. It is a strange understanding of his power that he would use this and not penalize those responsible for the narcotics coming into the United States.\u201d\n\n\u201cTrump and Republicans can\u2019t claim to be for protecting America\u2019s borders or getting tough on drugs and then turn around and release a convicted, notorious drug trafficker from U.S. prison. Setting free Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez sends the message that no crime against Americans is out of bounds as long as Trump and Republicans think they get a political benefit,\u201d said Senator Wyden.\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 is supported by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and John Fetterman (D-Pa.).\n\nRead and download the full text of the resolution.\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.welch.senate.gov/welch-leads-resolution-condemning-trumps-pardon-of-ex-honduran-president-and-drug-kingpin-juan-orlando-hernandez/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9497208520770073, "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"}