WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump pardoned former Puerto Rican Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced, who was accused of participating in a bribery scheme, a White House official confirmed Friday.
Vázquez Garced was initially indicted by the Justice Department under the Biden administration in 2022 on bribery charges. She pleaded guilty in August to a reduced charge of a campaign finance violation.
The pardon was first reported by CBS News. Two co-defendants, former FBI agent Mark Rossini, Julio Herrera Velutini, a Venezuelan-Italian banker, are getting pardoned as well, the White House official said.
“This entire case is an example of political prosecution," the official said.
According to the indictment, prosecutors said that between Dec. 2019 and June 2020, Vázquez Garced allegedly engaged in a bribery scheme as part of an effort to finance her 2020 gubernatorial campaign. She pleaded guilty last August as part of a plea agreement with the Trump administration and was scheduled to be sentenced later this month.
“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 White House official said, claiming that the investigation into her began 10 days after she endorsed Trump for president in Oct. 2020.
Vázquez Garced believed there was "no bribery at all," the official said, "because the discussions with the banker concerned a matter of agreeing on policy with a potential donor, and not taking action in exchange for a material gain."
Velutini's daughter, Isabela Herrera, has made large donations to Trump's super PAC. She gave $2.5 million to MAGA Inc. on Dec. 31, 2024, and another $1 million donation in late July, after prosecutors dropped the most serious charges against her father.
Velutini's attorney said at the time the charges were dropped because the "evidence did not support those allegations."
Vázquez Garced became governor of Puerto Rico in Aug. 2019 after former Gov. Ricardo Rosselló resigned following massive protests. She served in the role until 2021, when she lost her primary.
Separately, Trump also pardoned a woman named Adriana Camberos, who was convicted in a fraud case in 2024 — after Trump had commuted her sentence three years earlier in another fraud case, the White House official said.
Camberos was convicted in a counterfeiting case in California in 2017 and again in an unrelated fraud case in 2024. The White House official said they believe the Department of Justice targeted the family because of the Trump commutation.
"The Biden Department of Justice invested an inordinate amount of time and resources to investigate a business practice in which the supposed victims all earned a profit and the actions brought down the price of groceries for Americans suffering from President Biden’s out of control inflation," the official said.
Trump has granted clemency to hundreds of people throughout his second term so far, including several people sentenced on campaign finance violations or bribery charges.
