President Donald Trump said he commuted the prison sentence of disgraced former U.S. Rep. George Santos in a Truth Social post on Friday, Oct. 17.
In the post, Trump said the ex-Nassau congressman had been “horribly mistreated” while incarcerated.
“Therefore, I just signed a Commutation, releasing George Santos from prison, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote. “Good luck George, have a great life!”
Trump compared Santos to Connecticut Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal, whose exaggeration of his military service caused controversy during his 2010 Senate campaign.
Blumenthal misleadingly suggested that he had served on the battlefield during the Vietnam War on various occasions over the years. According to CBS News, while Blumenthal did serve six years in the Marine Corps Reserves, he received at least five deferments to keep him out of Vietnam. Blumenthal apologized in May 2010, and was elected that November.
Trump called Blumenthal a fraud and referred to him as “Da Nang” in the post.
“He was a COMPLETE AND TOTAL FRAUD. He never went to Vietnam, he never saw Vietnam, he never experienced the Battles there, or anywhere else. His War Hero status, and even minimal service in our Military, was totally and completely MADE UP,” Trump wrote. “This is far worse than what George Santos did, and at least Santos had the Courage, Conviction, and Intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN!”
Trump went on to call Santos a “rogue.”
“George Santos was somewhat of a ‘rogue,’ but there are many rogues throughout our Country that aren’t forced to serve seven years in prison,” he wrote.
Since starting his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, N.J in July., Santos has released a weekly message detailing his experience and the conditions of the prison, providing criticism of the country’s correctional system from the unique perspective of someone who previously participated in running it.
“I thought I’d seen government dysfunction before, but never at this level. What I’ve witnessed here is not just inefficiency, it’s outright chaos, sometimes bordering on what I can only describe as criminal negligence,” Santos wrote in a South Shore Press column. “This is not some cash-strapped government agency struggling to keep the lights on. No, this is the Bureau of Prisons, one of the most well-funded agencies in our federal government.”
He said his time behind bars shifted his perspective on incarcerated people and the system they find themselves in.
“The system isn’t built to rehabilitate — it’s engineered to break you down, to grind away at hope until all that’s left is compliance,” Santos said.
Santos reports a series of poor physical conditions in a series from behind bars: the bathroom as a “horror novel,” expired food, a building on the verge of falling apart, temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit indoors, black mold within the walls and the entire facility as “hell on earth.”
More than just being uncomfortable, however, he said the poor conditions are dangerous to his and others’ physical and mental health and make him feel “dehumanized” and “undignified.”
“It’s not just the loss of freedom—it’s the erosion of your dignity. It’s realizing how many basic human rights we all take for granted on the outside,” his message said.
Santos was exposed for spinning a web of lies that devolved into identity theft and wire fraud, was sentenced to serve 87 months in prison, the length that prosecutors sought.
“Santos’ disgraceful and greedy conduct has been exposed and at last it’s been brought to justice,” John Durham, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said following the sentencing at Central Islip federal court on Friday, April 25.
The seven-year punishment represents the combination of two consecutive sentences for the two counts he pleaded guilty to. He is also required to pay $373,000 in restitution to his victims.
Santos was indicted in May 2023 on 13 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and making materially false statements to Congress.
In October 2023, he was handed an additional 10 conspiracy charges to commit offenses against the United States, wire fraud, lying to the Federal Election Commission, falsifying records, aggravated identity theft, and device fraud.
Santos, who represented New York’s 3rd Congressional District on the North Shore of Nassau County and northeastern Queens, was elected in November 2022. He was expelled in December 2023 after House Ethics investigations into allegations of his unethical and illegal activities that began shortly following his election.
In August 2024, Santos pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and identity theft. In exchange for his guilty plea, the 21 other charges from his indictment were dropped.
In court, Santos admitted to falsifying campaign fund numbers to meet Federal Election Commission benchmarks and get proper funding from the Republican National Committee — something his campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks, pleaded guilty to.
Santos admitted to applying for unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic despite not being unemployed. He also admitted to using the names of friends and family members to do this, which is the basis for the wire fraud and identity theft charges.
Santos was handed the longest sentence available for his crimes, which the Justice Department pursued. His defense team sought a shorter sentence of two years in prison with two years of suspended release.
His commutation comes after pleading from some of his Republican allies, including Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican who sent a letter in August asking the Justice Department for a commutation.
At that time, Mr. Trump, who has doled out pardons or clemency to staunch supporters and others favored by his base, did not rule out offering a pardon to Santos.
“Nobody’s talked to me about it,” Mr. Trump said at the time. But after acknowledging Santos’s reputation for falsehoods, the president commended their shared political ideology.
“He lied like hell,” Mr. Trump said at the time. “And I didn’t know him, but he was 100 percent for Trump.”
