{"id":8783,"date":"2025-10-19T22:16:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T22:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/8783\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T22:16:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T22:16:16","slug":"rep-malliotakis-criticizes-trumps-santos-commutation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/8783\/","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Malliotakis criticizes Trump’s Santos commutation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (N.Y.) said Sunday that President Trump\u2019s commuting the sentence<\/a> of former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) was \u201cthe wrong decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not agree with the commutation. I think it was a wrong decision, primarily because this is somebody who stole [hundreds of thousands] of dollars from his donors,\u201d Malliotakis said on CNN\u2019s<\/a> \u201cState of the Union.\u201d \u201cHe defrauded the public and his voters.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president commuted<\/a> the former congressman\u2019s seven-year prison sentence on Friday. Santos, 37, pleaded guilty<\/a> to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in August 2024, and he reported to<\/a> a New Jersey prison in July.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During an interview with<\/a> CNN\u2019s Dana Bash on Sunday, Santos said he has been \u201chumbled\u201d by his time in prison and expressed a desire to reform the criminal justice system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a statement he posted<\/a> to the social platform X later in the morning, Santos claimed it is \u201cunfair\u201d for those in the media to ask his former peers in the House or Senate about Trump commuting his sentence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI take full responsibility for addressing inquiries related to my situation. I am currently in a period of reflection and healing, and if part of that process means facing tough questions from the media, I am willing, ready, and able to do so,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Santos was expelled from<\/a> the House in December 2023, after less than a year in the lower chamber, amid the initial allegations. Malliotakis was one of 311 House members to vote for his expulsion.<\/p>\n

Malliotakis, who noted that Santos\u2019s seven-year sentence was \u201charsh,\u201d called for her former colleague to back up his words with actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish him well, I hope he does good and I hope he sticks to his word that he\u2019s a renewed person,\u201d Malliotakis said.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (N.Y.) said Sunday that President Trump\u2019s commuting the sentence of former Rep. George Santos…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7576,153,6347,9,11,10,887,7577],"class_list":{"0":"post-8783","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-commutation","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-george-santos","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-nicole-malliotakis","15":"tag-wire-fraud"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}