George Santos’ lying ass is back in the spotlight

Fresh off having his prison sentence commuted by President Donald Trump, former New York Rep. George Santos wasted no time jumping back into the spotlight. Within 48 hours, he sat down for an interview with Dana Bash on CNN and reactivated his account on Cameo, the service where he previously charged more than $300 for personalized videos.

Santos, who served less than three months of a seven-year sentence, offered little indication of remorse. When Bash asked whether he intended to pay back the roughly $374,000 in restitution tied to his fraud conviction, Santos shrugged off the idea.

“I can do my best to do whatever the law requires of me,” he said. “So I don’t know what that is. I’ve been out of prison for two days. I agreed to come here to speak with you candidly and openly and not to obfuscate. If it’s required of me by the law, yes. If it’s not, then no. I will do whatever the law requires me to do.”

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He didn’t stop there. 

In a separate appearance on Fox News, Santos went further, claiming he no longer owed any restitution.

“I do not have any pendencies with the law anymore. I have no restitution. I have no probation,” he said on “Fox & Friends Weekend,” calling much of the restitution “really insane.”

In August, Santos pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft after prosecutors accused him of embezzling donor funds and charging their credit cards without authorization. A judge ordered him to pay nearly $374,000 in restitution to those he defrauded, money he used to bankroll a lifestyle built on lies.

Prosecutors said he spent donor money on luxury shopping trips at Hermès and Louis Vuitton, extended stays at Las Vegas’ Venetian Hotel, credit card payments, and thousands of dollars in cash withdrawals.

That con was part of a much bigger web of deceit. Even before his arrest, Santos was widely known for lying about nearly every corner of his life—fabricating degrees, job titles, charity work, and even claiming his mother died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Those lies helped him win office, but they eventually caught up with him, leading to his expulsion from the House.

Still, Santos was full of gratitude—for Trump.

On Fox, he called the president a man with “such an amazing will for second chances.” And on CNN, he waved off the backlash.

“I’m pretty confident if President Trump had pardoned Jesus Christ off the cross, he would have had critics,” he said. “So that’s just the reality of our country.”

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Santos had spent months lobbying for clemency, aided by allies in Congress. Far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia even sent a letter to the Justice Department formally requesting that Trump cut Santos’ sentence short.

If this feels predictable, that’s because it is. Trump’s clemency spree has been sweeping, especially for those in his political orbit.

On his first day back in office, Trump pardoned more than 1,500 people tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, including individuals who assaulted police officers. Some of those who were pardoned have since been arrested and/or convicted again.

Days later, Trump pardoned 23 anti-abortion extremists. In early March, he granted clemency to a Tennessee Republican who was two weeks into a nearly two-year sentence for campaign finance violations. And Trump later pardoned a former Las Vegas City Council member with close ties to his political network. Over the following months, his list of clemency recipients continued to expand.

Perhaps no group has benefited more than scandal-plagued Republican officeholders, though. 

Santos is the latest in a series of Republican officeholders or former officials to receive clemency. Others include Michael Grimm, a former New York congressman convicted of tax fraud, and John Rowland, the former Connecticut governor who also served time in prison. 

With Santos’ commutation, Trump has now pardoned or commuted the sentences of 10 current or former Republican members of Congress convicted of crimes, and that number will likely rise.

Traditionally, presidents used pardons sparingly, often to correct miscarriages of justice or clear the names of those wrongfully accused. Trump’s standard is far simpler: If you’re an ally, that’s good enough. And for Santos, that loyalty paid off.

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