By Micah Jonah
January 17, 2026
President Donald Trump is set to grant a pardon to former Puerto Rico Governor, Wanda Vazquez Garced, following her acceptance of a plea deal in 2025 over alleged involvement in a bribery scheme while in office, White House officials confirmed to US media.
Reports first emerged on Friday via CBS News, with Trump administration sources linking the pardon to the president’s ongoing campaign against what he calls “lawfare” targeting his political allies.
A senior Trump official, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the case as an instance of political persecution. Over the past year, Trump has issued pardons to numerous right wing figures and supporters, including former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, convicted of federal drug charges, as well as individuals involved in the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
With more than 1,700 pardons and clemency acts granted in last year alone, Trump is poised to surpass former President Joe Biden’s record, who granted 4,245 clemency acts during his four year term.
The announcement has drawn criticism from Puerto Rico’s political opposition. Pablo Jose Hernandez Rivera, the territory’s non voting representative in the US House, said on social media that the pardon “protects and promotes corruption” and “weakens public integrity while eroding trust in the justice system.”
Vazquez, a member of the Republican Party and the New Progressive Party, which advocates for Puerto Rico’s US statehood, became governor after Ricardo Rosello resigned in 2019, served until January 2021. She was arrested in 2022 after the US Justice Department accused her of accepting a campaign contribution in exchange for agreeing to remove a commissioner from office, linked to investigations of a Venezuelan owned bank.
The bribery case centered on alleged actions between December 2019 and June 2020, with Vazquez initially denying wrongdoing before accepting a plea deal in August 2025. She is the first former Puerto Rican Governor to face federal charges.
Trump has frequently defended his use of pardons as a tool to shield political allies, framing it as a response to bias within the US justice system and the “weaponization” of the Department of Justice under previous Democratic administrations.
The move comes amid Trump’s continued contentious relationship with Puerto Rico, including previous efforts to remove Democratic members of the federal control board overseeing the island’s finances and critical remarks during his 2024 re election campaign.
