WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump claimed Sunday that former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez was the victim of a "setup" orchestrated by former President Joe Biden's administration.

"I was asked by Honduras, many of the people of Honduras, they said it was a Biden setup. I don't mean Biden. Look, Biden didn't know he was alive, but it was the people that surround the Resolute Desk, surround Biden when he was there," Trump said in response to a reporter's question on Air Force One.

"He was the president of the country, and they basically said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country, and they said it was a Biden administration setup. And I looked at the facts, and I agreed with them," he added.

Trump said he would pardon Hernandez Friday, just days before Hondurans were set to take to the polls on Sunday.

Hernandez, who served as president in Honduras from 2014 to 2022, was sentenced to 45 years in prison in the US in June 2024 after being convicted by a New York jury on drug trafficking and firearms charges. Prosecutors alleged that he was responsible for facilitating trafficking of over 400 tons of cocaine into the US, totaling billions of individual doses.

Trump has not offered any evidence to support his claim that the case against Hernandez was politically motivated, but his pardon announcement came as he also endorsed Honduran right-wing presidential candidate Nasry Asfura. Asfura and Hernandez both hail from the conservative National Party.