On Friday, President Donald Trump commuted the seven-year federal prison sentence of disgraced former New York Congressman George Santos, ordering his immediate release after serving less than three months behind bars.

Santos, 37, was released from the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, New Jersey, shortly before 11 p.m. Friday evening and was picked up by family members. He had been serving an 87-month sentence for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft stemming from fraudulent activities during his 2022 congressional campaign.

In a post on Truth Social announcing the commutation, Trump described Santos as “somewhat of a ‘rogue'” but argued that many others in the country do not face seven-year prison terms for similar conduct. The president praised Santos for having the “Courage, Conviction, and Intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN” during his brief time in Congress.​

Trump also claimed Santos had been “in solitary confinement for long stretches of time and, by all accounts, has been horribly mistreated”. According to the clemency grant, Trump commuted Santos’s “entire sentence to time served with no further fines, restitution, probation, supervised release, or other conditions”. This means Santos will not have to pay nearly $580,000 in court-ordered restitution to his victims.

Santos pleaded guilty in August 2024 to charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft after prosecutors accused him of orchestrating a “mountain of lies, theft, and fraud” aimed at personal enrichment. He admitted to deceiving donors, fraudulently claiming relatives had made campaign contributions when they had not, and stealing the identities of 11 people—including family members—to redirect funds for personal and campaign use.​​

Prosecutors detailed how Santos charged over $44,000 to his campaign over several months using credit cards belonging to donors who were unaware of the deception. He also fraudulently claimed unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic while employed and made false statements to the Federal Election Commission and House Ethics Committee.​

Among the personal expenses Santos funded with campaign money were Botox treatments, purchases on OnlyFans, luxury vacations in the Hamptons and Atlantic City, designer clothing, and cash withdrawals. He was sentenced in April 2025 to the maximum 87 months in prison and began serving his sentence on July 25.

Santos’s downfall began after he won the election in November 2022 to represent New York’s 3rd Congressional District. Shortly after his victory, reports revealed he had fabricated significant portions of his biography, including false claims about graduating from Baruch College and New York University, working for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, having Jewish ancestry, and being a college volleyball star.​

Santos also falsely claimed his grandparents survived the Holocaust and that his mother was in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. In December 2022, he admitted to the New York Post that he had “embellished” his resume but initially maintained he had committed no crimes.

Despite the mounting controversies and criminal charges, Santos was sworn into Congress in January 2023. However, his tenure lasted less than a year. In December 2023, the House voted 311-114 to expel him following a damning House Ethics Committee report.​

The bipartisan ethics report found “substantial evidence” that Santos violated federal law, concluding he “blatantly stole from his campaign” and “exploited every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit”. Santos became only the sixth member of Congress ever to be expelled by a vote of colleagues.

The Santos commutation is part of a broader pattern of controversial pardons and commutations issued by Trump. Earlier in 2025, he granted blanket pardons to approximately 1,500 individuals convicted in connection with the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. He has also commuted sentences for various political allies convicted of crimes including fraud, conspiracy to commit extortion, and money laundering.​

Santos joins nearly 16 other corrupt politicians who have received pardons or commutations from Trump.