According to The Washington Times, the official said the President views the prosecution of Vázquez as a political case, noting that the federal investigation began just 10 days after she endorsed him during the 2020 campaign. The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity, said Vázquez, a Republican aligned with the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, had become a target after aligning herself with President Trump’s agenda.
Vázquez pleaded guilty in August to a campaign finance violation in a federal case that authorities say also involved a former FBI agent and a Venezuelan banker, with sentencing scheduled for later this month. Federal prosecutors had pushed for a one-year prison term, a recommendation her attorneys opposed as they accused the government of reneging on a plea agreement that led to the dismissal of earlier bribery and fraud charges.
January 18, 2026
Her legal team emphasized that Vázquez had only admitted to “accepting a promise of a campaign contribution that was never received,” a far cry from the sweeping corruption narrative advanced by prosecutors. Attorneys for Vázquez did not immediately respond to requests for comment as news of the impending pardon circulated in Washington and San Juan.
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CBS News was the first outlet to report that President Trump intended to pardon Vázquez, a move that immediately sparked partisan backlash on the island. Pablo José Hernández, Puerto Rico’s representative in Congress and a member of the island’s main opposition party, quickly denounced the decision and framed it as an attack on institutional integrity.
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“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 Hernández, a Democrat with Puerto Rico’s Popular Democratic Party, in a statement reflecting the familiar Democratic narrative that any Trump-aligned figure must be made an example. His criticism, however, sidestepped the timing of the investigation and the plea deal controversy, both of which have fueled conservative concerns about selective prosecution and the weaponization of federal power.
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Vázquez, an attorney and the second woman to serve as Puerto Rico’s governor, became 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. She was arrested in August 2022 and accused of participating in a bribery scheme from December 2019 through June 2020 while in office, allegations she publicly rejected at the time, telling reporters that she was innocent.
Authorities said Puerto Rico’s Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions had been investigating an international bank owned by Venezuelan financier Julio Martín Herrera Velutini over allegedly suspicious transactions that were not reported. Prosecutors further alleged that Herrera and Mark Rossini, a former FBI agent who provided consulting services to Herrera, promised to support Vázquez’s campaign if she removed the sitting commissioner and installed a regulator of Herrera’s choosing.
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According to federal filings, Vázquez demanded the commissioner’s resignation in February 2020 after allegedly accepting the bribery offer, and she was later accused of appointing a new commissioner in May 2020 who had previously worked as a consultant for Herrera’s bank.
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Vázquez, who was sworn in as governor in August 2019 after former Gov. Ricardo Rosselló resigned amid massive protests, served until 2021, when she lost the New Progressive Party primary to Pedro Pierluisi, leaving conservatives to argue that whatever her missteps, the punishment sought by federal authorities was wildly disproportionate and tainted by politics.
