Scoop: The letter behind Trump’s pardon of Honduras’ ex-president for drug trafficking

From a U.S. prison cell, Honduras' ex-president secured a likely pardon for drug trafficking thanks to a letter he penned praising President Trump — whom he called "Your Excellency" — and a persistent lobbying campaign by longtime Trump pal Roger Stone.

Trump announced Friday that he planned to pardon Hernandez ahead of Sunday's elections in Honduras, where the White House backed the right-wing National Party that Hernandez led as president from 2014-2022.

Shortly after Trump took office in January, Stone wrote three separate Substack posts calling for the pardon of Hernandez, who was indicted the day he left office in 2022 and extradited to the U.S. to face cocaine-trafficking and weapons charges.

Stone cast Hernandez as a victim of leftist "lawfare" in Honduras and in President Biden's administration.

Stone told Axios that on Friday he reached out to Trump and reiterated those points. Stone claimed a pardon announcement would energize the National Party and called Trump's attention to Hernandez's four-page letter begging for clemency.

Hours later, at 4 p.m., Trump posted on Truth Social that he'd endorse Asfura. Less than 20 minutes later, he posted that he'd pardon Hernandez.

"It was a Biden setup," Trump told reporters Sunday about the case against Hernandez, who's serving a 45-year sentence.

One source said political consultant Dick Morris, who was involved with the effort to secure Trump's endorsement of Asfura, fretted to White House staffers about a Hernandez pardon. Morris didn't return a call or text message from Axios.

"How we justify this is really hard, considering Maduro," another Trump adviser said.

"But maybe this is a message to Maduro? If Trump is willing to take the heat by basically canceling this, he's telling Maduro he can do the same to him if he just plays ball."