WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday commuted the sentence of former Long Island Rep. George Santos, a Republican ousted from office and sentenced to 7 years in prison for fraud and identity theft earlier this year.
Joseph Murray, one of Santos’ lawyers, told The Associated Press late Friday that the ex-lawmaker was released from the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, New Jersey, around 11 p.m., and was greeted outside the facility by his family.
Trump announced the commutation on his social media platform Truth Social, calling the former lawmaker who lied about his credentials and used campaign donations to pay for lavish expenses “somewhat of a ‘rogue.’”
The president said “at least Santos had the Courage, Conviction, and Intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN! George has been in solitary confinement for long stretches of time and, by all accounts, has been horribly mistreated. Therefore, I just signed a Commutation, releasing George Santos from prison, IMMEDIATELY. Good luck George, have a great life!”
Santos’ lead attorney Joe Murray praised Trump in a text message to Newsday Friday night when asked for reaction to the commutation.
“God bless President Donald Trump, the greatest President in U. S. History!” Murray wrote in a text punctuated with an American flag emoji.
In August 2024, Santos, 37, pleaded guilty to charges that he defrauded campaign donors during his 2022 run for New York’s 3rd Congressional District. Santos, the Queens-born son of Brazilian immigrants flipped the seat for the district spanning parts of Nassau and eastern Queens, billing himself as a political insurgent motivated to run by Trump’s 2016 victory.
But an explosive report in The New York Times weeks after Santos was elected found he lied about his background, touting degrees from schools he never attended, listing top-tier companies he never worked for, and claiming Jewish ancestry.
Following an investigation by the bipartisan House Ethics Committee on allegations he lied on his congressional financial disclosures, Santos was expelled from office in December 2023 by a bipartisan vote in the chamber, making him the sixth member in the history of Congress to be expelled.
Federal investigators indicted Santos in 2023 on multiple charges of wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds, making false statements to Congress, identity theft and unauthorized use of donor credit cards. He initially pleaded not guilty, but ultimately pleaded guilty to the charges in August 2024.
Santos was sentenced to 87 months in prison in April, ordered to repay nearly $375,000 in funds and forfeit more than $200,000.
In July, he reported to a minimum security prison FCI Fairton in New Jersey and chronicled his time via a column with The South Shore Press, a Center Moriches-based publication. Last month, Santos wrote he was being held in protective custody, away from other inmates, claiming there was an investigation into a purported plot to kill him behind bars.
“‘The only hope I have is that President Trump will see this and take me out of this horrid situation and let me go back to my family,’” Santos wrote in the September column.
Andrew Mancilla, an attorney for Santos, in an email said: “This was the right call, and we commend the President for it.”
News of the commutation was met with bipartisan condemnation on Long Island.
Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport) in a statement to Newsday said, “The President has the discretion to commute sentences for people convicted of federal crimes,” but added the victims of Santos’ crimes “still have not been made whole, including the people he stole from and the voters he defrauded…The less than three months that he spent in jail is not justice.”
Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville) in an X post said Santos’ crimes “warrant more than a three-month sentence. He should devote the rest of his life to demonstrating remorse and making restitution to those he wronged.”
Robert Zimmerman, the Democratic National Committeeman from Great Neck who lost to Santos amid the 2022 red wave on Long Island, took aim at Trump saying he “is trying to put his political enemies in jail while he frees George Santos for the unconscionable crimes that he committed and the fraud he concealed.”
“For Donald Trump to erase the consequence of those crimes — simply because Santos votes Republican — should outrage each and every American who says they are for law and order,” Zimmerman said.
Jody Kass Finkle, organizer of the group Concerned Citizens for NY-3, a group that mobilized voters from the district to Washington for protests outside of Santos’ office, told Newsday in a phone interview Friday night that the group — which included voters from both parties — was “appalled” by Trump’s decision.
“We feel betrayed,” Kass Finkle said. “We feel betrayed by Trump, and we feel betrayed by the Republican Party.”
Newsday’s Nicole Fuller and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.