George Santos freed early after Trump commutes his fraud sentence

when George Santos After being released from prison having served less than three months of his sentence, he took what remained of law enforcement’s credibility with him.

The fired former congressman, whose 7-year prison sentence was commuted by President Trump, is not just a lying buffoon who made up wild stories about himself. He is a scam artist who cost his victims a lot of money, then pleaded guilty.

But there is a much bigger question about Trump Ministry of Justice And whether the huge sums used to investigate his political enemies also include using his pardon power to let his favored crooks, most of whom are Republicans, off the legal hook.

On the offensive side, the president has ordered investigations into political rivals like James Comey and Letitia James — both of whom were indicted by a loyalist when the career prosecutor was fired for insisting there was insufficient evidence — along with Adam Schiff and George Soros.

George Santos vows not to ‘disappoint’ Trump after surprise release, says he found God in prison

On the defensive side, Trump has already pardoned Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, and Charles Kushner (Jared’s father) at the end of his first term. He pardoned the rioters on January 6 when he reclaimed the White House.

In fairness, Joe Biden He issued many last-minute preemptive pardons to protect his Trump allies, including, of course, his son Hunter.

But here’s the thing. The Justice Department spent several thousand dollars investigating Santos, gathering evidence and presenting it to a grand jury.

President Trump commuted the prison sentence of former Rep. Jorge Santos, Republican of New York. (Theodore Parisien/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

The former lawmaker fraudulently claimed unemployment benefits.

He diverted money from his donors for personal expenses, taking $11,000 from a victim’s credit card to buy designer clothes from Hermès and Sephora, cosmetics, OnlyFans purchases, and, not surprisingly, Botox. For him, Botox was probably the most important cost.

So the whole investigation was a waste of money, considering the get out of jail free card he was eventually handed.

He claimed to have been a star volleyball player at a college he never attended. He claimed to run a pet charity (false) and raised money to perform surgery on a service dog, who was not really sick.

He claimed that his mother was killed in the World Trade Center on September 11. He claimed that his Jewish ancestors fled the Nazis, but records show they were still alive In Brazil; He later insisted that he never said he was Jewish. He claimed to own 13 properties and receive a salary of $750,000, both of which are untrue. He claimed to have produced the flop Spider-Man on Broadway.

Most significantly, he claimed to have worked for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, which said there was no record of him being there – a false claim that was meant to give him credibility in raising money.

George Santos expresses his gratitude to Trump after his sentence was commuted to 7 years in prison

Santos became a national punchline. But it was no joke in the House, where more than 100 Republicans joined Democrats in ousting him at the end of 2023.

Another Trump tactic is to rein in existing investigations, depending on his policy preferences, which retroactively turns these investigations into a pointless exercise. This could include Democrats.

Mayor of New York City Eric AdamsSome of his senior aides had been convicted, and he was indicted on corruption charges related to Turkey when Trump took office. Adams had supported Trump on the illegal immigration case, and the president closed the investigation — again, making law enforcement efforts a waste of taxpayer money.

Trump also pardoned former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who was serving a 14-year prison sentence for trying to sell Barack Obama’s old Senate seat in an extortion attempt. The president had his sentence commuted in his first term.

Trump’s pardons and commutations can cross party lines — just ask former Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. (Charles Rex Arbogast/AP Photo)

But back to Santos. While the New York Times exposed much of Santos’ false resume, by then he had already been elected congressman from Long Island.

But a local newspaper, the North Shore Leader, exposed him before the election.

“We all smelled phony,” publisher Grant Lally told PBS’s “NewsHour,” adding, “We knew Santos was a fraud.”

It was “very disappointing” that no one caught the scoop before the election. “We sent the newspaper to a lot of local agencies, a lot of media outlets.”

Santos came to Trump’s attention, in part, after writing a column about life in prison. (Steven Nadler/ISI Images/ISI Images via Getty Images and Win McNamee/Getty Images)

I wish he would send it to me. The excuse was that the national press was busy with other news New York stories.

I have never met Santos and have nothing against him. He has simply become a national embarrassment.

Santos came to Trump’s attention in part by writing a column about prison life for the South Shore Press on Long Island. Trump said the convicted fabulist was held in solitary confinement for long periods and “subjected to extremely bad treatment.”

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One of the catchphrases against Santos is that he has never shown much remorse.

On CNN’s “State of the Union” program on Sunday, he said: “People are going to hate me. It doesn’t matter who gets clemency in the future, whoever that person is. I’m pretty confident that if President Trump had pardoned Jesus Christ on the cross, he would have critics. So that’s the reality of our country.”

Geez.

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When the story of his serial slurs first broke, former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, now Director of National Intelligence, sharply questioned Santos during an interview with Fox, demanding that:

“Don’t you have any shame?”

The question still hangs in the air.