Trump pardoning Puerto Rico's former governor Wanda Vzquez, sources say [View all]
Source: CBS News
Updated on: January 16, 2026 / 12:47 PM EST
President Trump plans to pardon Puerto Rico's former governor, Wanda Vázquez Garced, who pleaded guilty last year in a federal public corruption case, multiple sources told CBS News on Friday.
Her two co-defendants, the billionaire Venezuelan-Italian banker and Britannia Financial Group founder Julio Martin Herrera-Velutini and Mark Rossini, will also be pardoned for their crimes in the bribery scheme, two of the sources said.
The Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, which last year was largely dismantled, charged the three in 2022 with conspiracy, federal programs bribery, and honest services wire fraud in connection with Vázquez's 2020 campaign. All three defendants pleaded guilty to lesser corruption charges in August, after the Justice Department abruptly cut a deal with the defendants as the case was nearing trial.
Among the defense attorneys who helped broker the deal with Mr. Trump's Justice Department was Chris Kise, who previously defended the president over criminal charges that he retained classified information after departing the White House in early 2021.
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-pardoning-puerto-rico-former-governor-wanda-vazquez-officials-say/
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