President Donald Trump has commuted the sentence of former Representative George Santos (R., N.Y.), who was serving an 87-month stint in federal prison for wire fraud and identity theft.
“I just signed a Commutation, releasing George Santos from prison, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump said on Truth Social. “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.”
Santos pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges in New York last year after he was accused of stealing from donors and his campaign and lying about his wealth. Santos also falsely claimed that he was a business consultant at two Wall Street firms and went to college; he later admitted that he never worked at Citigroup or Goldman Sachs or graduated from Baruch College, as he had insisted.
A House Ethics Committee investigation found that the 37-year-old spent campaign funds on expensive flights, hotels, and meals that were not for political purposes. He also used campaign money to fund his botox procedures, spa days, OnlyFans subscriptions, and more.
The disgraced representative also told sprawling lies about his personal backstory, including falsely claiming that he was Jewish and had relatives who died in the Holocaust.
Santos was just 84 days into his now-commuted prison sentence at the medium-security Federal Correctional Institution in South Jersey.
From prison, he has published a column titled “Santos in Solitary” for the South Shore Press. His column three weeks into his prison sentence detailed his fall from the “pinnacle of power and prestige, attending galas, navigating multimillion-dollar fundraisers in glittering Manhattan apartments and Long Island mansions, to the rock bottom of federal confinement.”
Most recently, Santos wrote a “passionate plea” asking Trump to commute his sentence, after Trump considered granting Santos clemency when asked about the former congressman in an August interview. Santos “lied like hell,” Trump said in August, but “was 100 percent for Trump.”
Santos capitalized on that sentiment in his latest op-ed, begging Trump to remember that Santos “never wavered” on Trump’s America First vision.
“Supporting you wasn’t just a political decision — it was personal. It was rooted in my conviction that you were the only leader who truly put this nation, and her people, first,” Santos wrote on Monday. “You have always been a man of second chances, a leader who believes in redemption and renewal. I am asking you now, from the depths of my heart, to extend that same belief to me.”
Trump’s pardon comes days after Santos’s letter. In his statement on Friday, the president lauded Santos’s ability to have the “Courage, Conviction, and Intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN!”
“George has been in solitary confinement for long stretches of time and, by all accounts, has been horribly mistreated,” Trump said. “Good luck George, have a great life!”