Trump says he has commuted sentence of George Santos in federal fraud case

Donald Trump announced on Friday he had commuted the sentence of George Santos, the disgraced former New York representative and serial fabulist who had been sentenced to more than seven years in prison after a short-lived political career marked by outlandish fabrications and fraudulent scheming.

The New York Republican was sentenced in April after pleading guilty last year to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

“I just signed a Commutation, releasing George Santos from prison, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump posted on his social media platform.

In July, Santos reported to a federal prison in New Jersey, where he began serving an 87-month sentence for charges that ultimately led to his expulsion from Congress in 2023.

Santos had appealed to the Trump administration to intervene within hours of receiving his sentence, insisting in social media posts and interviews that it was overly harsh and politically motivated.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a prominent former House colleague, also urged the White House to commute his sentence, saying in a letter sent just days into his prison sentence that the punishment was “a grave injustice” and a product of judicial overreach.

The judge in Santos’s case had agreed with federal prosecutors that a stiffer sentence was warranted because Santos did not seem remorseful, despite what he and his lawyers claimed.

Santos lied prolifically about his biography before and after entering Congress, where he made history as the first openly LGBTQ+ Republican elected there.

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

In late May, he pardoned Michael Grimm, a New York former Republican representative who in 2014 pleaded guilty to underreporting wages and revenue at a restaurant he ran in Manhattan.

He also pardoned John Rowland, the former Connecticut governor whose promising political career was upended by a corruption scandal and two federal prison stints.

Trump himself was convicted in a New York court last year in a case involving hush money payments. He derided the case as part of a politically motivated witch hunt.

Santos was once an up-and-coming Republican star.