President Donald Trump mentioned Friday night he has signed a commutation releasing scandal-plagued former congressman George Santos from jail “instantly.”
Santos, 37, was lower than three months into serving a seven-year sentence in federal prison after being convicted of wire fraud and aggravated id theft.
In a social media put up, Trump mentioned Santos, who he known as “considerably of a ‘rogue,'” had the “Braveness, Conviction, and Intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN!”
Former congressman George Santos leaves the Alfonse D’Amato Federal Courthouse after being sentenced, April 25, 2025, in Central Islip. New York.
Howard Schnapp/Newsday RM by way of Getty Photographs
“George has been in solitary confinement for lengthy stretches of time and, by all accounts, has been horribly mistreated. Due to this fact, I simply signed a Commutation, releasing George Santos from jail, IMMEDIATELY. Good luck George, have an ideal life!” Trump mentioned.
The U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the Jap District of New York, which efficiently prosecuted Santos, had no remark.
In response to the clemency grant, a photo of which was posted on X by U.S. Pardon Legal professional Ed Martin, Trump granted Santos an “rapid commutation of his complete sentence to time served with no additional fines, restitution, probation, supervised launch, or different situations.”
Santos pleaded responsible to a sequence of fraud crimes and was sentenced in April to 87 months in jail — the utmost he confronted — and two years of supervised launch.
The commutation comes days after the South Shore Press published a “passionate plea” by Santos from jail to Trump, by which he expressed his assist and requested that the president “enable me the chance to return to my household, my mates, and my neighborhood.”
“Throughout my quick tenure in Congress, I stood firmly behind your agenda — 100% of the time,” Santos wrote within the letter, printed Monday. “I championed insurance policies that strengthened our economic system, defended our borders, and restored America’s standing on the world stage. I did it proudly, Sir, as a result of I believed — and nonetheless imagine — within the mission you got down to accomplish for the American folks.”
Santos mentioned within the letter that he was being held in “full isolation” following an alleged demise risk.
“Mr. President, I’ve nowhere else to show. You will have at all times been a person of second probabilities, a frontrunner who believes in redemption and renewal. I’m asking you now, from the depths of my coronary heart, to increase that very same perception to me,” he wrote.
Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who had not too long ago known as on Trump to commute Santos’ sentence, thanked the president for doing so on Friday, saying on X that the previous congressman was “unfairly handled and put in solitary confinement, which is torture!!”
Santos pleaded responsible in August 2024, by which he admitted to claiming family members had made contributions to his marketing campaign when, in reality, they’d not. Santos conceded he was attempting to fulfill the fundraising threshold to qualify for monetary assist from the Nationwide Republican Congressional Committee.
He additionally stipulated that he dedicated different fraud, together with charging donor bank cards with out authorization and convincing donors to provide cash by falsely stating the cash can be used for TV advertisements. He additionally stipulated he stole public cash by making use of for and receiving unemployment advantages in the course of the pandemic to which he was not entitled.
As a part of his plea deal, he agreed to pay almost $600,000 in restitution and forfeiture.
Rep. George Santos waits for the beginning of a session within the Home chamber in Washington, D.C., Jan. 6, 2023.
Alex Brandon/AP, FILE
Santos was expelled from Congress in December 2023, slightly below a 12 months after assuming workplace to symbolize New York’s third Congressional District.
His expulsion from Congress adopted accusations of ethics violations and different wrongdoing in a scathing report by the Home Ethics Committee that claimed he was a fabulist and fraudster who used the status of political workplace to bilk tens of hundreds of {dollars} out of different folks.
