Trump commutes expelled congressman George Santos

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that he had commuted the sentence of former U.S. Rep. George Santos, who was scheduled to serve more than seven years in federal prison after pleading guilty to fraud and identity theft charges.

Joseph Murray, one of Santos’ lawyers, told the New York Post on Friday night that the former lawmaker was released from the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, New Jersey, around 11 p.m.

The New York Republican was sentenced in April after admitting last year to deceiving donors and stealing the identities of 11 people, including members of his own family, to donate to his campaign.

He reported to FCI Fairton on July 25 and was housed in a minimum security prison camp with fewer than 50 other inmates.

“George Santos was kind of a ‘rogue,’ but there are plenty of rogues across our country who aren’t forced to serve seven years in prison,” Trump posted on his social media platform. He said he “just signed a commutation, releasing George Santos from prison, IMMEDIATELY.”

“Good luck George, have a great life!” Trump said.

Santos’ X account, which has been active during his roughly 84 days in prison, reposted a screenshot of Trump’s Truth Social post on Friday.

During his time behind bars, Santos regularly wrote dispatches in a local Long Island newspaper, complaining primarily about prison conditions.

However, in his latest letter he pleaded directly with Trump, citing his loyalty to the president’s agenda and the Republican Party.

“Sir, I appeal to your sense of justice and humanity, the same qualities that have inspired millions of Americans to believe in you,” he wrote in The South Shore Press on October 13. “I humbly ask that you consider the unusual pain and hardship of this environment and allow me the opportunity to return to my family, my friends and my community.”

Santos’ commutation is Trump’s latest high-profile act of clemency for former Republican politicians since he retook the White House in January.

In late May, he pardoned former U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm, a New York Republican who pleaded guilty in 2014 to underreporting wages and income at a restaurant he ran in Manhattan. He also pardoned former Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, whose promising political career was upended by a corruption scandal and two stints in federal prison.

But by pardoning Santos, Trump was rewarding a figure who has been the object of scorn within his own party.

After becoming the first openly gay Republican elected to Congress in 2022, Santos served less than a year after it was revealed that he had fabricated much of his life story.

Bloomberg via Getty Images

During the election campaign, Santos had claimed to be a successful business consultant with Wall Street credibility and a sizable real estate portfolio. But when his resume came under scrutiny, Santos finally admitted that he had never graduated from Baruch College, nor had he been a standout player on the Manhattan College volleyball team, as he had claimed. I had never worked at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.

He wasn’t even Jewish. Santos insisted that he meant he was “Jewish” because his mother’s family had a Jewish background, even though he was raised Catholic.

In truth, the then 34-year-old man was struggling financially and was even facing eviction.

Santos was accused in 2023 of stealing from donors and his campaign, fraudulently collecting unemployment benefits and lying to Congress about his wealth.

Still, a prominent former House colleague, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, urged the White House to commute Santos’ sentence, saying in a letter sent just days after his prison bid that the punishment was “a grave injustice” and the product of judicial overreach.

Greene was among those who applauded the announcement Friday. But U.S. Rep. Nick LaLota, a Republican who represents part of Long Island and has been highly critical of Santos, said in a social media post that Santos “didn’t just lie” and that his crimes “would deserve more than a three-month sentence.”

“He should dedicate the rest of his life to showing remorse and making restitution to those he wronged,” LaLota said.

Santos’ pardon appears to erase not only his prison sentence, but also any “additional fines, restitution, probation, supervised release or other conditions,” according to a copy of Trump’s order published on X by Ed Martin, the Justice Department’s pardon attorney.

As part of his guilty plea, Santos had agreed to pay restitution of $373,750 and forfeiture of $205,003.

In explaining his rationale for granting clemency to Santos, Trump said the lies Santos told about himself were no worse than the misleading statements that U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat and frequent critic of the administration, had made about his military record.

Blumenthal apologized 15 years ago for suggesting he served in Vietnam, when he was in the United States in the Navy Reserve during the war.

“This is much worse than what George Santos did, and at least Santos had the courage, conviction and intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICANS!” Trump wrote.

The president himself was convicted in a New York court last year in a case involving payments to maintain his silence. The case was mocked as part of a politically motivated witch hunt.