Trump says he has commuted sentence of George Santos in federal fraud case | George Santos

Donald Trump said Friday he commuted the sentence of former U.S. Representative George Santos, who spent more than seven years in federal prison after pleading guilty to fraud and identity theft charges.

The New York Republican was sentenced to prison in April after admitting last year that he deceived donors and stole the identities of 11 people, including his own family members, to donate to his campaign.

He reported to the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton in southern New Jersey on July 25 and is being held in a minimum-security prison camp with fewer than 50 other inmates.

“I just signed a sentence that IMMEDIATELY releases George Santos from prison,” Trump said on the social media platform.

A few hours after receiving his sentence, Santos insisted on social media posts, calling on the Trump administration to intervene. interviews It was extremely harsh and politically motivated.

Prominent former House colleague Marjorie Taylor Greene also called on the White House to commute his sentence in a letter sent a few days after he was sentenced, saying the sentence was a “serious injustice” and the product of excessive judicial intervention.

The judge in the Santos case agreed with federal prosecutors that a harsher sentence was warranted because Santos did not appear remorseful, despite his and his attorneys’ claims.

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 New York Republican representative Michael Grimm, 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.

So was Trump himself He was convicted in a New York court last year in a case involving hush money payments. He ridiculed the case as part of a politically motivated witch hunt.

Santos was once an up-and-coming star of the Republican Party.