The presidential pardon in the case against former governor Wanda Vázquez Garced and two other convicts has not stopped the proceedings in the Federal Court in San Juan.

Judge Silvia Carreño Coll denied yesterday, Saturday, Vázquez Garced’s defense request to remove the one-year jail sentence recommendation that had been filed by the Federal prosecution.

The decision came a day after the U.S. Department of Justice published the pardon signed by President Donald Trump for Vázquez Garced, Venezuelan banker Julio Herrera Velutini and financial advisor Mark Rossini, in relation to the “individually enumerated offenses” in the original indictment filed in 2022.

After lengthy plea negotiations, the three pleaded guilty to less serious election law violations in three new cases filed separately in June 2025.

Sentencing hearings for the three convicts remain set for January 29, at the Federal Court in Hato Rey.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office requested a year in jail for Vazquez Garced, but lawyers asked that this memorandum be removed alleging that he had violated the agreement. They charged that after a plea agreement Vazquez Garced agreed to plead guilty to a less serious violation for accepting a contribution from a foreigner for his political campaign, so the allegations in the original indictment about bribery and fraud should not be considered.

After evaluating the parties’ position, the judge highlighted a judicial precedent which states that, “in determining how best to formulate a criminal sentence, ‘the sentencing authority has always been free to consider a wide range of relevant material.’”

In the case file, Carreño Coll pointed out that the recommendation of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office “is only one of the elements that the Court will consider when sentencing”.

He added that, “furthermore, the Court agrees that the information provided by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in its sentencing memorandum, regarding the factual predicate” of the original indictment, “is intended to contextualize the conduct charged in the present case and for which Vázquez Garced pleaded guilty”.

“To that effect, the Court understands that (the prosecution) has not breached the plea agreement contained in the record and that it is not necessary to remove from the record the sentencing memorandum of the Public Prosecutor’s Office,” the judge ruled.

Meanwhile, proceedings also continued in the case against Velutini, who had again requested that the sentencing hearing be postponed.

But Carreño Coll noted that this is the third time the banker has requested a delay in his sentencing hearing. He pointed out that, this time, the petition is to complete “the informal resolution” of objection to the Presentence Report of the Probation Office, because it contains allusions to the allegations of the original indictment.

However, the judge noted that “circumstances have changed since then” because last Friday the Probation Office filed an amended report addressing the objections.

“Therefore, it only remains for Herrera Velutini to file his formal objections and submit his sentencing memorandum. In light of this situation, the Court understands that, by the date of sentencing, Herrera Velutini, along with his four attorneys, will have had sufficient time to review the materials necessary to adequately prepare for his sentencing hearing in this case," the judge noted, in the case file.

In Rossini’s case, the probation office also filed an amended report. According to a motion by Rossini’s attorneys, the probation officer told them that he incorporated some “limited” corrections, while explaining his reasons for declining to adopt other defense objections.

“Court intervention is now required,” said Rossini’s defense, which did not request a postponement of the hearing.

He alleged that the report, “as currently written, superimposes speculation on hearsay, imports unadopted accounts from other defendants, and transforms a misdemeanor case into something it is not: an all-purpose referendum on broader political events.”

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