Trump Commutes the Sentence of Disgraced Congressman Santos Because He Is '100% for Trump'

Oct 21, 2025

Donald Trump has a history of giving pardons to people who pay him money—but also sometimes just to conmen and frauds whom he clearly sees as kindred spirits. That would seem to cover disgraced former Congressman George Santos, whose sentence Trump just commuted.

The Guardian leads with Santos’ most extravagant offense: stealing money raised to provide care for a veteran’s dying service dog. It then provides the rest of the context:

Santos made history in 2022 as the first out LGBTQ+ Republican elected to Congress. He was later exposed for having lied prolifically about his biography, and a House ethics committee detailed how Santos used campaign funds for personal travel, cosmetic treatments and luxury goods.
He ultimately was expelled from Congress, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and identity theft, reported to a federal prison in New Jersey in July, and served three months of the sentence given to him before Trump commuted the punishment on Friday. The commutation from Trump—who won a second presidency in 2024 despite a criminal conviction of falsifying business records—set the stage for Santos to be released from prison on Saturday.
“He lied like hell,” Trump said of his fellow Republican to Newsmax. “But he was 100% for Trump.” …
[Santos] said on Sunday’s edition of the Fox & Friends Weekend program that he no longer had to pay the nearly $375,000 in restitution that—along with $205,000 in forfeiture—he agreed to when he pleaded guilty.

He lied, but he supported Trump. That sums up the gratuitous corruption of this administration.

The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.

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