Trump commutes former Rep. George Santos’ prison sentence

President Donald Trump said Friday that he had signed a commutation that would immediately release former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., from prison.

“George has been in solitary confinement for long stretches of time and, by all accounts, has been horribly mistreated,” Trump posted on Truth Social Friday evening. “Therefore, I just signed a Commutation, releasing George Santos from prison, IMMEDIATELY. Good luck George, have a great life!”

In April, Santos was sentenced to more than seven years in prison.

Last year, he pleaded guilty to charges of committing wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, conduct that prosecutors said was part of a yearslong scheme that preyed upon the campaign finance system and his own political party, donors and family members to line his own pockets.

A senior White House official said Trump made the decision to help Santos this week. The official added that “many people wrote to him about it.”

“The reach-outs on this that President Trump got were overwhelming,” another White House official said. “He heard from so many people, and in recent days he decided it was the right decision. It’s his call, and he made it.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., has publicly campaigned for a Santos pardon. In an interview with NBC News this week, she said she had been in contact with the Department of Justice in recent weeks regarding the possibility.

Greene declined to say whether she had spoken directly to Trump about the matter.

Greene argued that Santos’ punishment was overly harsh.

“George Santos never raped anybody, never murdered anybody, is not a child sex-trafficker. Why is he in solitary confinement?” she said, adding, “That is an extreme treatment for someone for the crimes that he was convicted of.”

Greene began calling for a pardon after learning Santos had spent more than a month in solitary confinement.

Santos reported to prison in July at a federal facility in Fairton, New Jersey.

Santos unexpectedly won a congressional seat in 2022, beginning a short, drama-filled career in Congress. He quickly faced scandal when The New York Times and other outlets reported that parts of his resume were made-up.

In May 2023, he was indicted on federal charges, including money laundering and wire fraud. He was hit with a 23-count superseding indictment in October of that year. He initially pleaded not guilty to the charges and refused to resign from Congress.

A scathing report from the House Ethics Committee released in November 2023 found that there was “substantial evidence” that he “violated federal criminal laws,” including using campaign funds for personal purposes and filing false campaign reports. The report led to increased backlash from within the Republican caucus.

Santos was expelled from the House in December 2023, after less than a year in office. He attempted to mount an independent bid to win back his seat last year, but dropped his bid weeks later.

Trump has aggressively used his clemency power in his second term. On his first day in office, he pardoned roughly 1,500 criminal defendants charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. He’s also granted clemency to a number of politicians, including former Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, former Democratic Cincinnati City Council member P.G. Sittenfeld, former Republican New York Rep. Michael Grimm and former Republican Connecticut Gov. John Rowland.