President Donald Trump has thrown caution to the wind when it comes to issuing pardons during his second term.
He has repeatedly granted clemency to corrupt officials on both sides of the aisle, and he just added another one to the list.
Former Puerto Rico Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced and a group of her criminal co-defendants have all been pardoned by Trump.
We have seen this pattern time and time again. A public official knows that trouble is on the way, so they endorse Trump or vow to work with him to get into his good graces, hoping for a pardon down the road.
This was the path pursued by former New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), and a host of other corrupt public officials.
So, with allegations in the wind, it was not a surprise to see Garced endorse Trump during his re-election bid back in 2020.
At the time of her endorsement, Puerto Rico was under scrutiny for the alleged mismanagement of public health funds.
In August 2022, it was announced that the Department of Justice (DOJ) had charged Garced for corruption.
The DOJ announced, “The alleged bribery scheme rose to the highest levels of the Puerto Rican government, threatening public trust in our electoral processes and institutions of governance.”
It continued, “The Department of Justice is committed to holding accountable those who wrongly believe there is one rule of law for the powerful and another for the powerless. No one is above the rule of law.”
The allegations dated back to December 2019, claiming that various individuals, including Julio Martin Herrera Velutini, Frances Diaz, Mark Rossini, and John Blakeman, were all involved in a bribery scheme to back Garced’s gubernatorial campaign.
This week, Trump announced the pardon of the former governor, but not all those charged were included in the clemency grant, something the administration reportedly plans to address very soon.
As the White House did with the other pardons, it claimed that Garced was targeted due to her previous support of Trump, explaining, "This entire case is an example of political prosecution. In August of 2022, Wanda Vazquez faced bribery charges related to the financing of her 2020 gubernatorial campaign.”
It continued, “Ms. Vazquez' pardon materials state that there was never any element of a quid pro quo deal and that her prosecution was politically motivated. The investigation into Ms. Vazquez began 10 days after she endorsed President Trump in 2020.”
The pardon was not well received by local officials, who have once again accused Trump of undermining “public integrity” as well as shattering the “faith in justice.” I have made my stance on these corruption pardons quite clear in the past, and you can now add the pardon of Garced to the growing list of bad decisions.
