George Santos leaves the US Capitol after fellow members of Congress voted to expel him from the House of Representatives on December 01, 2023. The New York Republican was later sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to a host of federal charges, but President Trump has now commuted his sentence.
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Drew Angerer/Getty Images
President Donald Trump announced Friday that he had commuted the prison sentence of Jorge Santos, the New York Republican who was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for a series of crimes after he was expelled from the House of Representatives over accusations he stole money from his campaign donors.
Trump made the announcement in a post on Truth Social on Friday, saying he had signed a commutation to release Santos from prison immediately.
“George Santos was a bit of a ‘rogue,’ but there are many rogues all over our country who did not have to spend seven years in prison,” Trump wrote.
Santos, a staunch Trump supporter, pleaded guilty in 2024 to wire fraud and identity theft charges. Prosecutors said Santos was responsible for a “mountain of lies, theft and fraud” aimed at enriching himself and deceiving his campaign donors. He began his sentence in July of this year at the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, New Jersey.
Shortly after Santos was elected in 2020, reports that he had fabricated several aspects of his identity began to leak out. He later admitted to lying about his education, work and upbringing. Santos was still sworn into Congress in 2022 despite contradictions raised over his background and campaign finances.
His lies would catch up with him less than a year into his term. In 2023, the House of Representatives voted 311 to 114 to remove him from office. Nearly all Democrats and more than 100 Republicans voted to oust Santos.
The vote made Santos the sixth actor ever to be ejected from the chamber but the first to be expelled without being convicted of a crime. At the time of his firing, Santos was facing 23 criminal charges.
Trump compared Santos’ crimes to allegations made by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., more than 15 years ago about his military service. Blumenthal had previously admitted that he “made a mistake” in talking about his military service in Vietnam. Blumenthal served for six years in the marine reserve beginning in 1970, but none of that time was spent overseas.
“This is much worse than what George Santos did, and at least Santos had the courage, conviction and intelligence to always vote Republican!” Trump wrote.
So far, during his second term, Trump has issued a slew of high-profile pardons and commutations. He issued a blanket pardon to more than 1,500 people accused of committing acts related to the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich also received a pardon after being convicted of a series of corruption-related crimes, including trying to sell a US Senate seat vacated by former President Barack Obama. Trump commuted Blagojevich’s 14-year prison sentence during his first term.