US federal court dismisses appeal from former Honduras president

In gentle of President Donald Trump’s pardon, the US Court docket ​of Appeals for the Second Circuit dismissed an enchantment from former Honduran president ‌Juan Orlando Hernandez, and vacated a earlier judgement towards him on Wednesday.

The courtroom discovered that the pardon rendered the enchantment of the conviction moot, and dismissed it. For a similar cause, the courtroom vacated his conviction and remanded the case to the decrease courtroom with orders to dismiss.

Hernandez, talking ⁠in a video that was performed at a press convention in ​Honduras, celebrated the courtroom order. He thanked Trump for the pardon, saying, “It’s a full clear slate, it’s whole justice.”

In 2024, a New York courtroom convicted Hernandez of smuggling 400 tons of cocaine into the US, together with possession of machine weapons, fining him $8 million and sentencing him to 45 years in jail.

Nevertheless, President Donald Trump pardoned Hernandez in November 2025. Trump justified the pardon by calling the unique investigation a “Biden administration arrange,” including that “they principally mentioned he was a drug supplier as a result of he was the president of the nation.”

In an modification to Senate Invoice 1383, the Veterans Accessibility Advisory Committee Act of 2025, Vermont Senator Peter Welch (D), mentioned that Hernandez led one of many largest and most violent drug rings on the planet. Welch condemned his pardon, saying that it was “an affront to the Federal legislation enforcement…weakens the rule of legislation, and severely harms the credibility of the USA in combating drug trafficking.”