President Donald Trump signed off on a series of pardons this week that included a convicted fraudster he had previously released from prison early during his first term, as well as several defendants tied to a high-profile political corruption case, according to reporting from The New York Times.
Among those pardoned was Adriana Camberos, a California resident who began serving a 26-month federal prison sentence in December 2019 after being convicted for attempting to sell millions of counterfeit bottles of 5-hour Energy drinks. According to the Times, Camberos hired an attorney with connections to Trump shortly after beginning her sentence. About a month later, her brother, Andres Camberos, made his first-ever federal donation to a Republican candidate, contributing $50,000 to Trump’s re-election campaign.
In January 2021, during the final days of Trump’s first term, the president signed a clemency petition commuting Adriana Camberos’s sentence, releasing her from prison roughly a year early.
Federal prosecutors later said Camberos quickly became involved in another criminal scheme, this time alongside her brother. According to court records cited by the Times, the siblings purchased consumer goods from manufacturers at discounted rates, claiming the products would be sold in Mexico. Prosecutors said the goods were instead resold in the United States at higher prices, and that bank and mail fraud were used to conceal the activity.
Both Adriana and Andres Camberos were convicted in that case. She was sentenced to prison, while he received house arrest, and both were ordered to pay millions of dollars in restitution to the defrauded companies. Despite those convictions, both siblings were among the individuals whose names appeared on clemency petitions that Trump signed this week, which the Times reported were approved quietly.
The new round of pardons also included defendants connected to a political corruption case involving former Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez. The case centered on allegations that Vázquez accepted bribes from Venezuelan-Italian banker Julio Herrera Velutini in 2020. Herrera had faced multiple felony charges, but his attorney, Christopher M. Kise — who previously served on Trump’s legal defense team — negotiated a deal with the Justice Department allowing Herrera to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor campaign finance violation last May.
Vázquez and a third defendant in the case, former FBI agent Mark Rossini, who served as a consultant to Vázquez, also pleaded guilty to the same misdemeanor charge. Trump’s pardons this week covered all three individuals.
The timing of the pardons followed significant political donations connected to Herrera’s family. In late 2024, Herrera’s daughter, Isabella Herrera, donated $2.5 million to MAGA Inc., Trump’s super PAC. Two months later, she contributed an additional $1 million.
The White House denied that the donations played any role in the pardons. According to the Times, administration officials said the clemency decisions were based on a belief that the investigation was politically motivated retaliation for Vázquez’s endorsement of Trump in 2020.
Other recipients of Trump’s recent pardons included Terren S. Peizer, a former business executive convicted of insider trading in 2024 and sentenced to 42 months in prison, and Jacob Deutsch, who received a 62-month sentence for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme. Peizer had also been ordered to pay a $5.25 million fine and forfeit more than $12.7 million.
The scope and nature of the pardons prompted renewed attention to how Trump has exercised his clemency powers. Politico senior legal affairs reporter Josh Gerstein highlighted the contrast with prior administrations, noting that former President George W. Bush once withdrew a pardon after learning a recipient’s family member had donated to his campaign and later cautioned President Barack Obama to be careful in granting clemency.
