Puerto Rico Governor Wanda Vazquez speaks at a news conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico Jan. 19, 2020.
Ricardo Arduengo | Reuters
President Donald Trump plans to pardon former Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vรกzquez, a White House official said Friday.
Vรกzquez pleaded guilty last August toย a campaign finance violationย in a federal case that authorities say also involved a former FBI agent and a Venezuelan banker. Her sentencing was set for later this month.
Federal prosecutors had been seeking one year behind bars, something that Vรกzquez’s attorneys opposed as they accused prosecutors of violating a guilty plea deal reached last year that saw previous charges including bribery and fraud dropped.
They noted that Vรกzquez had agreed to plead guilty to accepting a promise of a campaign contribution that was never received.
Attorneys for Vรกzquez did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The official who confirmed the planned pardon indicated Trump saw the case as political prosecution and said the investigation into Vรกzquez, a Republican aligned with the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, had begun 10 days after she endorsed Trump in 2020. The official wasn’t authorized to reveal the news by name and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Pablo Josรฉ Hernรกndez, Puerto Rico’s representative in Congress and a member of the island’s main opposition party, condemned a pardon for Vรกzquez.
“Impunity protects and fosters corruption. The pardon … undermines public integrity, shatters faith in justice, and offends those of us who believe in honest governance,” said Hernรกndez, a Democrat with Puerto Rico’s Popular Democratic Party.
Vรกzquez, an attorney, was the U.S. territory’s first former governor to plead guilty to a crime, specifically accepting a donation from a foreigner for her 2020 political campaign.
Sheย was arrested in August 2022ย and accused of engaging in a bribery scheme from December 2019 through June 2020 while governor. At the time, she told reporters that she was innocent.
Authorities said that Puerto Rico’s Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions was investigating an international bank owned by Venezuelan Julio Martรญn Herrera Velutini because of alleged suspicious transactions that had not been reported by the bank.
Authorities said Herrera and Mark Rossini, a former FBI agent who provided consulting services to Herrera, allegedly promised to support Vรกzquez’s campaign if she dismissed the commissioner and appointing a new one of Herrera’s choosing.
Authorities said Vรกzquez demanded the commissioner’s resignation in February 2020 after allegedly accepting the bribery offer. She also was accused of appointing a new commissioner in May 2020: a former consultant for Herrera’s bank.
Vรกzquez was the second woman to serve as Puerto Rico’s governor and the first former governor to face federal charges.
She was sworn in as governor in August 2019 afterย former Gov. Ricardo Rossellรณ resignedย following massive protests. Vรกzquez served until 2021, after losing the primaries of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party to former Gov. Pedro Pierluisi.
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