By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN and MIKE CATALINI Associated Press
The wife of former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández says he has been released from prison following a pardon from President Donald Trump. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons has confirmed his release from a penitentiary in West Virginia on Monday. Hernández was sentenced last year to 45 years for aiding drug traffickers. His wife thanked Trump for the pardon, saying it ends nearly four years of hardship. Hernández was arrested in 2022 at U.S. request and convicted in New York. Trump, speaking Sunday on Air Force One, said he believed Hernández was set up and that Hondurans had asked for his release.
A federal judge has decided that a former Alaska Airlines pilot who tried to cut the engines of a passenger flight in 2023 won't serve prison time. Joseph Emerson was sentenced Monday to credit for time served and three years of supervised release. Emerson was riding in an extra seat in the cockpit of a Horizon Air flight from Everett, Washington, to San Francisco and was subdued by the crew. The plane landed safely in Portland. Emerson pleaded guilty or no-contest to all charges against him in September as part of plea agreements with state and federal prosecutors. In the state case he was sentenced to five years of probation, among other measures.