President Donald Trump commuted the sentence of disgraced former New York GOP Rep. George Santos on Friday, The Hill reported. Santos, who was behind bars on federal fraud charges, could face penalties from the state if Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly has anything to say about it.
There were 23 federal criminal counts connected to Santos, including making materially false statements to the House of Representatives, theft of public funds, and money laundering. He was also accused of submitting falsified records to the Federal Election Commission.
Last Summer, Santos took a plea deal that included admitting to aggravated identity theft and wire fraud. The initial sentence was for seven years, but Santos spent just 84 days in prison before Trump rescued him, as Democrats' attempts to malign Santos have failed.
Before this move, Santos had said he would not seek a lesser sentence, but he changed his tune during an interview with Piers Morgan last May. "I’ll take a commutation, clemency, whatever the president is willing to give me," Santos told the British political commentator.
Donnelly suggested that Santos may not get off completely scot-free in the face of a state investigation. "I am proud of the work my office has done, and the conviction achieved in partnership with the U.S. Attorney’s office," Donnelly said in a post to X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday.
"While the office cannot comment on ongoing investigations, suffice it to say that I remain focused on prosecuting political corruption wherever it exists, regardless of political affiliation," she added. Her office would not elaborate any further on whether there is currently an investigation by Donnelly.
Statement from Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly pic.twitter.com/aLHD8kICsQ
— Nassau DA (@NassauDA) October 21, 2025
Meanwhile, Trump shared on his Truth Social that "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. He cited how other lawmakers have lied about their pasts during elections. "Democrat Senator Richard 'Da Nang Dick' Blumenthal came up again," Trump continued.
"As everyone remembers, 'Da Nang' stated for almost twenty years that he was a proud Vietnam Veteran, having endured the worst of the War, watching the Wounded and Dead as he raced up the hills and down the valleys, blood streaming from his face," Trump continued. The only problem was that Blumenthal made it up, but Trump noted that it didn't cost him his freedom. Meanwhile, Trump said "ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN! George has been in solitary confinement for long stretches of time and, by all accounts, has been horribly mistreated," Trump charged.
The former Republican lawmaker, who was facing criminal charges, had appealed to Trump publicly just days before receiving clemency, NBC News reported. Santos has repeatedly leaned on that support when making his case to Trump, including most recently in an open letter to the president last week, purportedly from solitary confinement.
"During my short tenure in Congress, I stood firmly behind your agenda. You have always been a man of second chances, a leader who believes in redemption and renewal. I am asking you now, from the depths of my heart, to extend that same belief to me," Santos wrote.
This echoes sentiments from a 2019 video, in which Santos was very deferential to Trump, pledging his allegiance to the president and his agenda. "I’ve been on the Trump train, far before Trump was ever president, far before he announced, we’re talking ‘Apprentice’ days," Santos claimed.
Indeed, Santos spoke at a Jan. 5, 2021, rally in favor of Trump and his illegal immigration policies while the then-outgoing president was still convinced that the 2020 election had been stolen from him. Santos later showed his support for Trump during his 2023 arraignment and again in a victory party in New Hampshire after Trump won the 2024 presidential election.
Santos is certainly problematic in many ways, but Trump's position as president gives him the authority to help those convicted of crimes. Democrats routinely let dangerous criminals out of prison without such explicit permission, so what Trump is doing is nowhere near the same.
