AnOpen Letter to
TheDrug Enforcement Administration hasmisled you.
TheHonduras pardon is the proof. Please act.
DearMr. President:
I write to you as an independent voter, a small-business owner, and the editor of an independent civic-journalismpublication
inOmaha—the citywhere BerkshireHathaway holds itsAnnualMeeting andwhere the country’s
most respected businessminds gather each spring. I write not in anger, but in concern—for your reputation, for
the country, and for the truth.
On November 28, 2025, you announced—and on December 1, formally granted—a full pardon to Juan Orlando
Hernández, former President of Honduras.Mr. President, with all respect: I believe the people who urged that
pardonmisled you about whoMr.Hernández is.
This is not aman who was “treated very harshly and unfairly.” This is aman whomprosecutors accused of leading
a narco-state. A federal jury in New York convicted him in March 2024. A federal judge sentenced him to 45
years and an $8 million fine. The Assistant U.S. Attorney told the court Mr. Hernández had “paved a cocaine superhighway
to theUnited States.” Prosecutors documented at least 400 tons of cocainemoved intoAmerica during
his presidency and a $1million bribe to his brother—also convicted—fromthe Sinaloa Cartel under “El Chapo”
Guzmán himself, in exchange for unimpeded passage of product throughHonduras.
By any measure—tonnage, duration, sophistication, government infrastructure—Juan Orlando Hernández is
in the running for the largest cocaine trafficker any American jury has ever convicted. Bloomberg described the
pardon as having “toppled the capstone of one of themost ambitious narcotics investigations in the history of the
Department of Justice.”
Mr. President, I do not believe you knew. I believe you were told a different story.
That story came, in significant part, through the Drug Enforcement Administration — the agency that built the
case, that knows every page of the record, and that should have walked into the Oval Office and told you plainly:
“Sir, do not pardon this man. His record will become your record.” If the DEA gave you anything less, I believe the
DEA failed you. If theDEA helped engineer that pardonwhilewithholding its institutional knowledge, I believe the
DEA betrayed you.
I do notwrite to you as a stranger toDEAmisconduct. I amthe pro se plaintiff in active federal litigation in theU.S.
DistrictCourt for theDistrict ofNebraska arising froma Freedomof InformationAct enforcement claimagainst the
DEA, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Homeland Security. In the course of that litigation, I have
developed firsthand knowledge ofDEA conduct that inmy opinion does not reflectwell on the agency. Iwill not air
the details here; they belong in court filings. But Iwill statemy opinion plainly:my experience is consistentwith an
agency that has lost the discipline of telling its political leadership the truth.
You have demonstrated, in this term, a willingness to remove officials whose conduct damaged the administration.
That same willingness is needed now. Senator Mark Warner has already called the Hernández pardon
“glaring hypocrisy”—and that was before the capture of NicolásMaduro on essentially identical charges. The
contradiction is unanswerable; the agency that allowed it to develop is the one that should answer for it.
I write from Omaha, where the country’s most discerning business community gathers eachMay. Your reputation
among serious Omaha businesspeople is being eroded by DEA conduct that does not bear your fingerprints
but is being attributed to your administration. That is unjust to you.
For your protection, and for mine, please act:
Direct the Attorney General to remove the current Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Direct the Department of Justice Inspector General to open a formal review of the agency’s communications
with theWhiteHouse regarding theHernández pardon—who recommended it, who vouched for the recommendation,
and who possessed institutional knowledge ofMr.Hernández’s conduct and failed to convey it.
The country deserves aDrug Enforcement Administration that tells the President the truth. You deserve advisors
who do not damage your record by engineering pardons that contradict your own policy. And I deserve a federal
agency that responds tomy FOIA requests honestly, accurately and transparently.
Respectfully,
Brent Lambi
May 28, 2026
PresidentDonald J. Trump







