President Trump formally pardoned former President Juan Orlando Hernández of Honduras on Monday evening, fulfilling a vow he had made days before to free an ex-president who was at the center of what the authorities had characterized as “one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world.”
Mr. Trump pledged to issue the pardon last week, after Mr. Hernández sent him a four-page letter casting himself as a victim of “political persecution” by the Biden-Harris administration and comparing his fate to that of the American president.
Roger J. Stone Jr., Mr. Trump’s longtime on-and-off political adviser, said on his radio show that he had sent the letter, which was dated Oct. 28, to Mr. Trump hours before the president announced his plan to pardon Mr. Hernández. When asked whether he had been compensated for his role, Mr. Stone said he was not.
A White House official said Mr. Trump had not seen the letter before his announcement on Friday about the pardon. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity, saying the administration by matter of routine did not discuss pardons on the record.
Mr. Trump discussed the planned pardon with reporters over the weekend in terms similar to those Mr. Hernández had used in his letter, saying that “the people of Honduras really thought he was set up, and it was a terrible thing.”
“He was the president of the country, and they basically said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country,” Mr. Trump said. “And they said it was a Biden administration setup. And I looked at the facts, and I agreed with them.”
