The White House says Trump will pardon former Puerto Rico Gov. Vasquez in a campaign finance case

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump intends to pardon former Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez, a White House official said Friday.

Vasquez pleaded guilty last August to campaign finance violations in a federal case that authorities say also involves a former FBI agent and a Venezuelan banker. She is scheduled to be sentenced later this month.

Read more: Hegseth visits Puerto Rico as the United States ramps up military operations in the Caribbean

Federal prosecutors were seeking a year in prison, something Vasquez’s lawyers opposed as they accused prosecutors of violating a plea agreement reached last year that saw previous charges including bribery and fraud dropped.

They noted that Vasquez agreed to plead guilty by accepting the promise of a campaign contribution that was never received.

Vasquez’s lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The official who confirmed the planned pardon noted that Trump saw the case as a political prosecution, and said the investigation into Vazquez, a Republican allied with the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, began 10 days after she endorsed Trump in 2020. The official was not authorized to reveal the news by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

CBS News was first to report the plan to pardon Vasquez.

Pablo José Hernandez, Puerto Rico’s representative in Congress and a member of the island’s main opposition party, condemned Vázquez’s pardon.

“Impunity protects and promotes corruption,” said Hernandez, a Democrat from the Popular Democratic Party of Puerto Rico. “Pardons… undermine public integrity, destroy confidence in justice, and dishonor those of us who believe in fair governance.”

Vasquez, an attorney, was the first former US governor to plead guilty to a crime, specifically accepting a donation from a foreigner for her 2020 political campaign.

She was arrested in August 2022 and accused of being involved in a bribery scheme from December 2019 until June 2020 while she was governor. She told reporters at the time that she was innocent.

Puerto Rico’s Office of the Financial Institutions Commissioner was investigating an international bank owned by Venezuelan Julio Martin Herrera Vilotini for alleged suspicious transactions that the bank did not report, authorities said.

Authorities said Herrera and Mark Rossini, a former FBI agent who provided consulting services to Herrera, promised to support Vasquez’s campaign if she fired the commissioner and appointed a new person of Herrera’s choosing.

Authorities said Vasquez demanded the commissioner’s resignation in February 2020 after accepting the bribe offer. She was also accused of appointing a new commissioner in May 2020: a former advisor to Herrera Bank.

Vazquez was the second woman to serve as governor of Puerto Rico and the first former governor to face federal charges.

She was sworn in as governor in August 2019 after former Governor Ricardo Rosselló resigned following mass protests. Vázquez served until 2021, after losing the pro-statehood New Progressive Party primary to former governor Pedro Pierluisi.

Associated Press reporter Danica Cotto in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed.