Overview
- Hernández said the Second Circuit threw out his 2024 conviction and sentence and ordered the trial judge to dismiss the case as moot, a step CNN verified with the court document.
- The Justice Department did not oppose the move, which followed President Trump’s pardon that had already freed Hernández from a 45-year term.
- Speaking alongside his wife, Ana García, Hernández thanked President Trump, called the outcome a clean slate, and said he will ask Honduran courts to lift a local arrest warrant so he can return.
- The former Honduran leader was extradited to the United States in 2022 and convicted in New York in 2024 of facilitating large cocaine shipments with cartel figures, drawing a 45-year sentence.
- The decision carries political weight in Honduras, where Trump openly backed Nasry Asfura in last year’s vote and Hernández’s camp frames the U.S. case as a setup, while critics question the pardon’s clash with hard-line anti-drug policy.