Trump orders release of former lawmaker George Santos

US President Donald Trump commuted the more than seven-year prison sentence of former US representative George Santos for fraud and identity theft, ordering his immediate release.

Santos, who was expelled from Congress after a short term full of scandals, pleaded guilty to inflating fundraising figures and falsifying donor names to secure financial support for the Republican Party in the 2022 election cycle.

That year he was elected to represent part of New York City and its eastern suburbs.

During his campaign, Santos falsely claimed that he attended New York University, worked at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, and that his grandparents fled the Nazis during World War II.

Trump said Santos was “horribly mistreated” in prison.

“George Santos was kind of a ‘thug,’ but there are many thugs in our country who were not sentenced to seven years in prison,” Trump said in a statement on the Truth Social platform. he said.

“Therefore, I signed a commutation that IMMEDIATELY releases George Santos from prison,” he added.

Santos spent much of his 11-month term mired in scandals, sidelined by lawmakers and mocked by late-night comedians after it was revealed he had fabricated much of his personal history.

Santos’ commutation is the latest high-profile act of clemency toward former Republican politicians since Trump took back the White House in January.

In late May, he pardoned former U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm, a New York Republican who pleaded guilty in 2014 to underreporting wages and income at a restaurant he operated in Manhattan.

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

with AP