President Trump said Friday he was commuting the sentence of disgraced former Rep. George Santos of New York, who was serving more than seven years in federal prison for wire fraud and identity theft.
Santos was sentenced in April after he pleaded guilty last summer. He reported to a federal correction center in New Jersey in July.
“George Santos was somewhat of a ’rogue,’ but there are many rogues throughout our Country that aren’t forced to serve seven years in prison,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“George has been in solitary confinement for long stretches of time and, by all accounts, has been horribly mistreated,” he said. “Therefore, I just signed a Commutation, releasing George Santos from prison, IMMEDIATELY. Good luck George, have a great life!”
Santos appealed to the president not long after he was sentenced. He took to social media to say that he believed the length of his sentence was “an over-the-top politically influenced sentence,” and that he feared how he would be treated in prison.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican, also came to Santos’ defense. She thanked Mr. Trump for the pardon.
“He was unfairly treated and put in solitary confinement, which is torture!!” she wrote on social media.
Santos is known for his flair for the dramatic, and before heading to prison, he summed up his time in Congress and after.
“Well, darlings … The curtain falls, the spotlight dims, and the rhinestones are packed,” Santos wrote on social media at the time.
“From the halls of Congress to the chaos of cable news, what a ride it’s been! Was it messy? Always. Glamorous? Occasionally. Honest? I tried… most days,” he wrote. “To my supporters: You made this wild political cabaret worth it. To my critics: Thanks for the press. I may be leaving the stage (for now), but trust me legends never truly exit.”
He signed the post off with: “Forever fabulously yours, George.”
Before his fall from grace, he was an up-and-comer in the GOP after winning a district on Long Island that was historically Democratic.
He became the first openly gay Republican elected to Congress in 2022. But soon after he was elected, the lies he told about his personal and professional background started to emerge, including lies about where he went to school, where he worked, being Jewish and his mother dying in the September 11 terrorist attacks.
An ethics committee report determined there was “overwhelming evidence” he broke the law multiple times and exploited his office for profit. He was expelled from the House in December 2023.
