President Trump is preparing to wipe away the conviction of Puerto Rico's former governor and two co-defendants tied to a high-profile corruption case, according to multiple sources who spoke with CBS News. Former Gov. Wanda Vazquez Garced, who pleaded guilty last year in a federal public-corruption case, will receive a presidential pardon, the sources say. Federal prosecutors had sought a year behind bars for the former governor, reports the AP, which also sees the pardon as imminent.
Both CBS and the Hill note that Vazquez Garced endorsed Trump in the 2020 election. Also on the clemency list besides the former governor: Venezuelan-Italian banker Julio Martin Herrera-Velutini, who's the founder of Britannia Financial Group, and former FBI agent Mark Rossini, both implicated in the same alleged bribery scheme linked to Vazquez Garced's 2020 campaign. All three had pleaded guilty in August to reduced corruption charges after the Justice Department unexpectedly negotiated a deal just before trial.
The trio was originally indicted in 2022 by the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section on conspiracy, federal program bribery, and honest services wire fraud charges. Defense lawyers, including Trump attorney Chris Kise—who previously represented the former president in the classified documents case against him—pressed senior Justice Department officials to pare back or drop the case as trial approached.
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