People watch television at a bar as Puerto Rico's Governor Wanda Vazquez Garced makes an address regarding the debt restructuring proposal filed in court by an oversight board, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, September 27, 2019. (Reuters/Ricardo Arduengo)
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President Donald Trump has pardoned Puerto Rico’s former Governor Wanda Vazquez Garced, who was previously indicted in a federal corruption case, according to the Justice Department.
The Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney updated its list of clemency grants by Trump to include a pardon for Vazquez that was dated Thursday. A White House official on Friday confirmed Trump would pardon her.
“This entire case is an example of political prosecution,” the official said of Vazquez, who was arrested in August 2022 on bribery charges related to the financing of her gubernatorial campaign in 2020.
Trump also pardoned Vazquez’s co-defendants Julio Martin Herrera Velutini and Mark Rossini. CBS News first reported the development.
Trump has granted a flurry of pardons since assuming office last year, many of them to white-collar criminals and political allies.
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(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington, Ryan Patrick Jones and Bhargav Acharya in Toronto; Editing by Caitlin Webber and Sergio Non)
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