Trump pardons South Bay businesswoman convicted of fraud after he granted her clemency once before; The San Diego Union-Tribune, January 16, 2026

ALEX RIGGINS , The San Diego Union-Tribune; Trump pardons South Bay businesswoman convicted of fraud after he granted her clemency once before

"For the second time in five years, President Donald Trump has granted clemency to twice-convicted South Bay businesswoman Adriana Isabel Camberos, this time issuing her and her brother full and unconditional pardons of their fraud convictions after commuting her previous fraud sentence in 2021.

Camberos, 55, was first convicted in 2016 of taking part in a fraud scheme with her husband and others that involved selling counterfeit 5-Hour Energy drinks. She was about halfway through her 26-month prison term in that case when Trump commuted her sentence on the last day of his first term. Unlike a full pardon, that action set her free from prison but didn’t wipe out her conviction.

But in 2023, federal prosecutors in San Diego alleged that Camberos and her brother, Andres “Andy” Enrique Camberos, were operating a new fraud scheme that netted them tens of millions of dollars by selling discounted products meant to be sold in Mexico in the more lucrative U.S. market.

A San Diego federal jury later convicted the siblings on eight fraud counts. Among the jury’s findings was that the siblings committed wire fraud just 42 days after Trump first granted Adriana Camberos clemency."

Trump’s Pardon for Cocaine Juan: A jury found Honduras’s former President guilty. Why set him free?; The Wall Street Journal, December 2, 2025

The Editorial Board, The Wall Street Journal; Trump’s Pardon for Cocaine Juan: A jury found Honduras’s former President guilty. Why set him free?

"President Trump, like other politicians, sometimes does something unpopular to please his base. But what is the audience for Mr. Trump’s pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández?"

Former President of Honduras Is Freed From Prison After Trump Pardon; The New York Times, December 2, 2025

William K. Rashbaum, Maggie Haberman, Kenneth P. Vogel and Jonah E. Bromwich, The New York Times; Former President of Honduras Is Freed From Prison After Trump Pardon

"President Trump formally pardoned former President Juan Orlando Hernández of Honduras on Monday evening, fulfilling a vow he had made days before to free an ex-president who was at the center of what the authorities had characterized as “one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world.”"

Trump’s pardon of Honduras’s ex-president shows counter-drug effort is ‘based on lies and hypocrisy’; The Guardian, December 1, 2025

Tom Phillips, The Guardian ; Trump’s pardon of Honduras’s ex-president shows counter-drug effort is ‘based on lies and hypocrisy’

"He was a Latin American president accused of colluding with some of the region’s most ruthless narco bosses to flood the United States with cocaine.

“[Let’s] stuff the drugs right up the noses of the gringos,” the double-dealing politician once allegedly bragged as he lined his pockets with millions of dollars in bribes and turned his country into what many called a narco-state.

The description might sound like a sketch of Venezuela’s authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro, who Donald Trump’s administration has accused of being a “narco-terrorist” kingpin and is trying to topple with a $50m bounty and a huge display of military might off the South American country’s Caribbean coast.

But it is actually a portrait – painted by US prosecutors, no less – of the former Honduran president, Juan Orlando Hernández, who Trump last week pledged to pardon, despite the fact that Hernández was sentenced last year to 45 years in prison for allegedly creating “a cocaine superhighway to the United States”."

Trump Frees Fraudster Just Days Into Seven-Year Prison Sentence David Gentile had been found guilty for his role in what prosecutors described as a $1.6 billion scheme that defrauded thousands of investors.; The New York Times, November 29, 2025

Kenneth P. Vogel, The New York Times ; Trump Frees Fraudster Just Days Into Seven-Year Prison Sentence 

David Gentile had been found guilty for his role in what prosecutors described as a $1.6 billion scheme that defrauded thousands of investors.

"President Trump has set free a private equity executive who had served less than two weeks of a seven-year sentence for his role in what prosecutors described as a $1.6 billion scheme that defrauded thousands of victims.

David Gentile, 59, a onetime resident of Nassau County, N.Y., had reported to prison on Nov. 14, and was released on Wednesday, according to Bureau of Prisons records and a White House official who was not authorized to discuss the matter.

Mr. Gentile and a co-defendant, Jeffry Schneider, were convicted in August 2024 of securities and wire fraud charges, and sentenced in May. Unlike a pardon, the commutation granted to Mr. Gentile will not erase his conviction. 

Mr. Schneider, who was sentenced to six years, does not appear to have received clemency from Mr. Trump...

Mr. Trump has used the unfettered presidential clemency power to forgive an array of white-collar crimes and to make political points, including by casting prosecutions of his supporters as corrupt witch hunts like those that he claims had targeted him.

It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Gentile had connections to Mr. Trump or to the president’s supporters."