A former federal prosecutor who worked on the Wanda Vázquez Garced case and is now a candidate for Congress in Pennsylvania indicated that the presidential pardon of the former governor, Venezuelan banker Julio Herrera Velutini and consultant Mark Rossini represents a “sad day” for U.S. justice.

“This is another sad day for the rule of law in America. These defendants were considered innocent until proven guilty. But the people of Puerto Rico deserved to see this case go to trial, commented Ryan Crosswell, a former prosecutor in the Public Integrity Division of the U.S. Department of Justice on Friday.

Crosswell resigned, in February 2025, after the Donald Trump administration dropped corruption charges against then-New York City Mayor Eric Adams, another case he worked on.

The former U.S. Attorney argued that the case against Vázquez Garced, Herrera Velutini and Rossini “was a full-fledged public corruption prosecution, alleging conspiracy, bribery of federal programs and honest services wire fraud”.

In his statement, Crosswell noted that both the reduction of the charges to election violations and the presidential pardon come after Herrera Velutini’s daughter, Isabel Herrera, donated $3.5 million to the pro-Trump political action committee MAGA Inc. between December 2024 and July 2025.

Also in the background was the intervention of Herrera Velutini’s lawyer, Christopher Kise, a former Trump lawyer, who is considered key to getting the charges reduced to a less serious crime. Kise was a prosecutor alongside Todd Blanche, a federal deputy attorney general, and another former Trump lawyer.

Now, Crosswell, who was also in the Marine Corps, is running for the Democratic nomination for the House of Representatives seat in Pensylvania, held by Republican Ryan MacKenzie, who defeated, in 2024, then-Democratic Congresswoman Susan Wild by only about 4,000 votes, in an election in which about 403,000 voters participated.

Pennsylvania’s 7th District is based in Allentown, home to nearly 35,000 Puerto Ricans, more than a quarter of the city’s population.

“This story is not over. When elected to Congress, the Trump Justice Department will be held accountable,” Crosswell assured, on his social network account X, commenting on Trump’s decision to grant full and unconditional pardons to Vázquez Garced, Herrera Velutini and Rossini, who was an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Vázquez Garced is the first person who has governed Puerto Rico to be convicted of corruption.

Left out of the presidential pardon and reduced charges were two cooperating witnesses in the case who had pleaded guilty to the conspiracy related to the donations to Vázquez Garced’s gubernatorial campaign: John Blakeman, former Public Housing administrator and political collaborator of figures from the New Progressive Party (NPP), and Frances Díaz, who was president of Bancrédito.

Vázquez Garced, 65, pleaded guilty, in August 2025, to the lesser offense of violation of election campaign laws for accepting a promise to receive a donation of between $2,001 and $25,000 from a foreign national, Herrera Velutini.

According to the original indictment, Herrera Velutini sought to back Vázquez Garced for the purpose of removing the then head of the Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions, George Joyner, from his post and have a person of his confidence appointed.

In exchange for Joyner’s removal, which occurred, Herrera Velutini and Rossini promised to help Vázquez Garced’s campaign for the 2020 NPP primaries through donations and a public opinion poll that would have cost $500,000.

Joyner demanded corrections in Bancrédito’s operations, in the midst of an examination of suspicious transactions. Vázquez Garced ended up losing the NPP gubernatorial candidacy to Pedro Pierluisi, who was elected governor in 2020.

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This content was translated from Spanish to English using artificial intelligence and was reviewed by an editor before being published.