Disgraced former Rep. George Santos, who had been serving a seven-year term for the fraud charges that got him ousted from Congress, was released from prison on Friday night after President Donald Trump commuted his sentence, his lawyer tells CNN.
Trump first announced the commutation on Truth Social on Friday evening, and, according to attorney Joseph Murray, Santos’ family picked him up from the prison about five hours later.
“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,” the president wrote on Truth Social.
“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,” Trump added.
Trump’s commutation comes just months after Santos, 37, surrendered on July 25 to serve 87 months in prison.
Before he surrendered, Santos told Saudi outlet Al Arabiya English that he asked Trump for a pardon but believed he “got stonewalled.”
“I don’t think it made it to the president,” Santos said of his pardon request at the time. “Unfortunately, gatekeepers have blockaded for it to ever get to the president.”
But even from behind bars, Santos continued to make his case. According to his verified X page, he wrote an open letter to Trump earlier this week, pleading for “fairness” while also saying he takes “full responsibility” for his actions.
“Mr. President, I am not asking for sympathy. I am asking for fairness — for the chance to rebuild. I know I have made mistakes in my past. I have faced my share of consequences, and I take full responsibility for my actions. But no man, no matter his flaws, deserves to be lost in the system, forgotten and unseen, enduring punishment far beyond what justice requires,” Santos wrote in the letter published in The South Shore Press.
The law firm that represented Santos celebrated the president’s move, telling CNN, “We applaud the President for correcting this injustice.”
Murray posted on X a message on behalf of Santos thanking GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene -who he said “fought like a lion” for him – as well as Lauren Boebert, Anna Paulina Luna, and former Congressman Matt Gaetz, whom he described as “in regular contact.”
Santos also expressed gratitude to “the greatest DOJ team ever assembled”, specifically naming Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Associated Deputy AG Diego Pestana, and US Pardon Attorney Ed Martin, among other. Martin wrote on X he was “honored” to have played “a small role” in Trump granting “clemency” to Santos, and thanked the president for “making clemency great again.”
Meanwhile, the commutation drew mixed reaction from lawmakers. Taylor Greene — who wrote a letter to Trump in August asking him to commute Santos’ sentence — also thanked the president in a post on X, adding that Santos “was unfairly treated and put in solitary confinement, which is torture!!”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, however, slammed Trump for focusing on Santos instead of Americans’ health care — an issue at the center of the ongoing government shutdown.
“Donald Trump has time to free serial fraudster George Santos from prison. But he can’t be bothered to address the Republican healthcare crisis crushing working class Americans,” Jeffries said in a post on X.
In August 2024, the former congressman pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft and wire fraud charges stemming from activity during his 2022 midterm campaign.
“I deeply regret my conduct,” Santos said in court at that time. “I accept full responsibility for my actions.”
Santos was expelled from Congress in December 2023, before completing a full term in the US House – becoming only the sixth lawmaker ever to be expelled from the chamber.
During his short time in Congress, reports emerged of Santos having fabricated parts of his biography, including his employment history and education. He eventually admitted to doing that.
Santos represented parts of Long Island and Queens and attempted to run in another New York district before pleading guilty.
He added, in a statement reported by Politico, that Santos “has shown no remorse. The less than three months that he spent in prison is not justice.”
And Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, who represents Staten Island and southern Brooklyn, didn’t mince words: “George Santos is a convicted con artist. That will forever be his legacy and I disagree with the commutation.”
Santos pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud and identity theft after admitting he defrauded donors, stole campaign funds and filed false financial disclosures. A federal judge sentenced him to more than seven years in prison and ordered him to pay more than $370,000 in restitution.
Santos was formally expelled from Congress a year earlier. The House ethics committee, on which Garbarino serves, found “substantial evidence” of misconduct and illegal activity. Most members of the state’s delegation supported expulsion at the time.
Before his release late Friday, Santos was serving time at FCI Fairton, a federal prison in southern New Jersey.
Last month, he published a plea to Trump on South Shore Press, begging the president to release him. Santos wrote that he was being held in solitary confinement following a death threat. "I am locked inside a small steel cage twenty-four hours a day.”
Santos had been serving out his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, in southern New Jersey, per the federal Bureau of Prisons.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/17/politics/george-santos-sentence-commutedOn October 17, 2025, President Donald Trump said that despite George Santos being "somewhat of a 'rogue,'" he had the "courage, conviction, and intelligence to always vote Republican!"
The statement was part of a social media post in which Trump announced he had commuted Santos's prison sentence
To be qualified for your prison sentence to be commuted all you have to do is vote Republican as long as trump is president!
