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.
Santos was released around 11 p.m., his attorney said.
Santos' attorney earlier told NBC News that he was "appreciative" to Trump for "his compassion in seeing the suffering Mr. Santos endured through the prosecution" and commuting his "draconian sentence."
"His husband is picking him up right now, and he is overjoyed and thankful to Mr. Trump for the compassion he exhibited in releasing George and in commuting his sentence,” Santos' attorney added.
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. She posted on X in September that Santos was told he was being held in solitary “‘for his safety’ due to threats.” Before he went to prison, Santos posted on X himself saying that he “demand[ed] to be kept in solitary confinement for the entire duration” of his prison sentence, adding: “I refuse to lose my dignity in anyway shape or form.”
Ed Martin, the U.S. pardon attorney, said Santos had no "greater friend" that Greene.
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.
In his post announcing his Santos commutation, Trump downplayed Santos' fabrications, saying that while Santos was a "rogue" he was not as bad as Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. In 2010, Blumenthal — who was then running for Senate — apologized for having "misspoken" on multiple occasions when he said he had served "in Vietnam" instead of "during Vietnam." Blumenthal served in the Marine Reserve during the war but was not deployed there.
“This rant is fabricated nonsense," Blumenthal told NBC News Friday night. "There’s no excuse for commuting George Santos’ sentence.”
At least two Republican congressmen who voted to expel Santos from the House also put out statements Friday night criticizing Trump's move.
Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., who sits on the House Ethics Committee, said Santos only serving a few months of his seven-year sentence is “not justice.”
And Rep. Nick LaLota, who represents a swing district in New York, said Santos’ crimes warrant more than three months behind bars.
“George Santos didn’t merely lie — he stole millions, defrauded an election, and his crimes (for which he pled guilty) warrant more than a three-month sentence,” LaLota said. “He should devote the rest of his life to demonstrating remorse and making restitution to those he wronged.”
Richard Osthoff is a Navy veteran who accused Santos in 2023 of refusing to hand over thousands of dollars he raised in a 2016 GoFundMe campaign to raise money for lifesaving surgery for Osthoff's dog. He said he believes the $3,000 would have saved his dog's life.
Osthoff was outraged Friday night hearing Santos would be released from prison. He told NBC News he was "a little pissed off" and believes Trump shows "disdain for veterans and for military members" and is "abusing his powers."
"My gut dropped; I felt like I was going to throw up," Osthoff said. "He didn’t serve a drop in the bucket of his sentence, and now he will run around all over the place with a bigger ego and think he can get away with anything."
