Former Honduran president released from US prison after Trump pardon

Donald Trump

Former Honduran president released from US prison after Trump pardon

Juan Orlando Hernández was sentenced to 45 years for allegedly helping to move tons of cocaine into the US

Michael Dorgan Fox News

Published

December 2, 2025 1:22pm EST

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Trump issues pardon for former Honduran president

Fox News senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich reports on President Donald Trumps decision to pardon former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández and the pathway to peace between Russia and Ukraine on Special Report.

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Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was sentenced to 45 years last year for helping move tons of cocaine into the U.S., was released from prison on Monday, the Bureau of Prisons confirmed to Fox News.

Hernández was freed after President Donald Trump announced last week that he was issuing him a "full and complete pardon" following his conviction of conspiring with drug traffickers to import more than 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S.

Trump said that Hernández was "treated very harshly and unfairly," implying that his trial was politically motivated or over-prosecuted.

Hernández was convicted in New York on charges of conspiring to import cocaine into the U.S. and two related weapons offenses after a two-week trial.

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Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, second from right, is taken in handcuffs to a waiting aircraft as he is extradited to the United States, at an Air Force base in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on April 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Elmer Martinez)

Hernández portrayed himself as a hero of the anti-drug trafficking movement who teamed up with American authorities under three U.S. presidential administrations to reduce drug imports, according to The Associated Press. But the judge said trial evidence proved the opposite and that Hernández employed "considerable acting skills" to make it seem that he was an anti-drug trafficking crusader while he deployed his nation’s police and military, when necessary, to protect the drug trade.

His release comes as the Central American country, which has a population of around 11 million people, awaits the results of its razor-thin presidential election race.

Trump has publicly favored Nasry Asfura, the candidate from Hernández’s conservative National Party of Honduras (PNH).

Overnight, Trump accused Honduras of "trying to change the results."

The president addresses journalists aboard Air Force One during a return flight.

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters aboard Air Force One while traveling from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., to Joint Base Andrews on Nov. 30, 2025. (Alex Brandon/AP)

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"If they do, there will be hell to pay! The people of Honduras voted in overwhelming numbers on November 30th," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The U.S. president’s remarks came hours after Ana Paola Hall, president of the National Electoral Council, wrote on X that the preliminary rapid reporting system that began providing results Sunday night had reached its conclusion with 57% of votes tallied.

Their count showed a close race between Asfura and Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party, with Asfura holding a narrow lead of only a few hundred votes. Rixi Moncada, the Democratic socialist LIBRE candidate, trailed roughly 20 percentage points behind.

"It is imperative that the Commission finish counting the Votes," Trump wrote. "Hundreds of thousands of Hondurans must have their Votes counted. Democracy must prevail!"

Officials have stated that the count will continue but did not specify when updated totals would be released and parts of the council’s online system appeared to have been taken down.

Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was released from prison on Monday. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

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Just before the freeze, Trump had endorsed Asfura, calling him the only Honduran candidate his administration would work with and saying he would fight "narco-communists" alongside the U.S.

Trump’s latest warning injects new pressure into an already hostile post-election environment. The outcome will determine whether the Latin American country shifts away from the ruling LIBRE Party, and it will have a deep impact on its future relationship with Washington.

The winner will govern from 2026 to 2030.

Fox News’ Bradford Betz and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Michael Dorgan is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business.

You can send tips to michael.dorgan@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @M_Dorgan.

Former Honduran president released from US prison after Trump pardon