WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump has formally pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, telling reporters at the White House on Tuesday, “I feel pretty good about it.”

Hernández’s attorney Renato Stabile and a White House official told CNN earlier Tuesday that Trump had pardoned the former Honduran president. Trump announced his intention of granting a “full and complete pardon” to Hernández last week in a move that erases a major US drug-trafficking conviction for a onetime US ally.

President of Honduras from 2014 until 2022, Hernández was convicted and sentenced last year to 45 years in prison and given an $8 million fine by a US judge for drug-trafficking offenses.

Both Republican and Democratic members of Congress criticized Trump’s plan to pardon Hernández, with some saying they didn’t understand the president’s decision given the administration’s efforts to stop drug trafficking.

Hernández has now been released from prison, according to his attorney. A US Bureau of Prisons database also shows that the former Honduran president was released from a prison in West Virginia.

“On behalf of President Hernandez and his family I would like to thank President Trump for correcting this injustice. President Hernandez is glad this ordeal is over and is looking forward to regaining his life after almost 4 years in prison,” Stabile added in a statement.

Hernández’s wife, Ana García de Hernández, said in a social media post reacting to his release that her husband was a “free man” thanks to Trump’s pardon.

Trump on Tuesday defended his move to pardon Hernández after facing criticism that granting clemency to a convicted drug trafficker ran counter to his pressure campaign against drug cartels in the Caribbean.

“Well, he was the president, and they had some drugs being sold in their country, and because he was the president, they went after him — that was a Biden horrible witch hunt,” the president told reporters. “A lot of people in Honduras asked me to do that, and I did it.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also criticized the prosecution under the Biden administration. “He was the president of this country. He was in the opposition party,” she said Monday. “He was opposed to the values of the previous administration, and they charged him because he was president of Honduras.”

But as CNN has reported, prosecutors accused Hernández of conspiring with drug cartels during his tenure as they moved more than 400 tons of cocaine through Honduras toward the United States. In exchange, prosecutors said, Hernández received millions of dollars in bribes that he used to fuel his rise in Honduran politics.

Though the Trump administration is blaming the Biden administration, Hernández’s brother was prosecuted by Emil Bove during Trump’s first term in office. Bove then served as Trump’s personal attorney before becoming a federal judge nominated by Trump.

Several people in Trump’s orbit lobbied for Hernández’s pardon, including his longtime ally Roger Stone, who said he called on the president in June to pardon him and claimed he was targeted by the Biden administration.

Since Trump announced his plans to pardon Hernández, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have criticized the move, with some suggesting it goes against the US’ escalating efforts in the region against alleged drug cartels.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul told reporters Tuesday that the pardon demonstrates the “craziness of this policy” of striking alleged drug boats in the Caribbean.

Paul noted the inconsistency in how the administration handled this convicted drug trafficker, as opposed to alleged traffickers in international waters who have been killed in the strikes.

“We don’t know who’s in these boats. There could be people being trafficked, basically trying to go into another country illegally, could be in these boats. It could be a host of things,” he said.

GOP Rep. Maria Salazar told CNN’s Dana Bash on Monday that she felt Trump’s announcement sent a mixed message as the administration advances its campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

“I would have never done that,” the Florida Republican said.

Similarly, GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy posted on X Sunday, “Why would we pardon this guy and then go after Maduro for running drugs into the United States? Lock up every drug runner! Don’t understand why he is being pardoned.”

Democratic Rep. Norma Torres of California, meanwhile, sent a letter to Trump on Saturday, urging him to not pardon Hernández.

“Releasing Mr. Hernández flies in the face of your stated aim to fight narco-trafficking and to label narcotics gangs as terrorists,” Torres wrote in the letter. “If drug cartels are terrorist organizations, Juan Orlando Hernández is a convicted terrorist and must not go free.” — CNN