Trump revises pardons for ex-Gov. Vázquez, co-defendants, clearing the way for closing of case

Former governor Wanda Vázquez Garced

By THE STAR STAFF

President Donald Trump has issued revised full pardons for former Puerto Rico governor Wanda Vázquez Garced and her co-defendants, correcting an earlier version that failed to cover the misdemeanor offenses to which they pleaded guilty.

The updated clemency order clears the remaining legal hurdles needed to close the federal case.

Court filings show that Vázquez Garced, Venezuelan banker Julio Herrera Velutini, and former FBI agent-turned-consultant Mark Rossini have formally accepted the amended pardons.

The move comes after Trump’s initial Jan. 15 pardon mistakenly referenced only the original 2022 corruption indictment, leaving out the lesser election‑law violations the trio admitted to in 2025. The new pardons, dated Jan. 20, explicitly cite those misdemeanor charges, according to federal court records.

White House officials had acknowledged over the weekend that a second pardon would be necessary to reflect Trump’s intended scope of clemency for all charges tied to the case.

U.S. District Judge Silvia Carreño Coll had declined to dismiss the case after the first pardon, saying it was premature because the misdemeanor counts -- stemming from illegal campaign contributions -- remained active. She had been awaiting the corrected pardon to formally close the matter and cancel the Jan. 29 sentencing hearing.

Rossini was initially accused of helping Herrera Velutini funnel contributions to Vázquez Garced’s 2020 primary campaign. In return, prosecutors alleged, the then-governor removed George Joyner, head of Puerto Rico’s Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions, which at the time was probing Herrera Velutini’s bank, Bancrédito.

After months of negotiations involving senior Justice Department officials, the defendants agreed to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor related to the giving or receiving of an unlawful campaign donation from a foreign national -- specifically, Herrera Velutini. He had added a former Trump attorney to his defense team.

Trump issued the revised pardon as prosecutors pushed for a one‑year prison sentence for Vázquez Garced. The clemency also followed two donations totaling $3.5 million from Herrera Velutini’s daughter, Isabela Herrera, to MAGA Inc., a super PAC aligned with Trump.