Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene asked President Donald Trump on Monday to grant clemency to former Republican Rep. George Santos, the notorious fabulist who began his seven-year prison sentence last month.
Greene, a close Trump ally and conservative firebrand, said she sent a letter to the Department of Justice asking them to present a case to Trump for clemency consideration for the former New York member of Congress.
In the letter, she said Santos’ sentence for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges “extends far beyond what is warranted.”
“George Santos has taken responsibility. He’s shown remorse. It’s time to correct this injustice,” Greene said on X.
Santos, who pleaded guilty in April and reported to federal prison in New Jersey on July 25, became a household name shortly after he was elected to Congress in 2022, when The New York Times reported several outlandish lies he told about his backstory during his congressional campaign.
The details of Santos’ falsehoods, his misuse of campaign funds and falsifying financial records were ultimately compiled in a scathing House Ethics Committee report in 2023, triggering a House vote to expel Santos later that year.
When asked on Friday about possibly pardoning Santos, Trump acknowledged the former New York congressman’s wrongdoing but didn’t rule out granting him clemency.
“Nobody’s talked to me about it,” he said in an interview with Newsmax.
Santos has repeatedly said he’s asked the Trump administration to consider pardoning him. In a social media post weeks before he reported to prison, he claimed that House Speaker Mike Johnson had “blocked” the Trump administration from granting him clemency.
While presidents in recent history have waited until the end of their terms to sign pardons and commutations, Trump has already granted clemency to many people in the first year of his term — some of whom, like Santos, hadn’t completed their sentences.
On his first day in office, Trump granted clemency to hundreds of people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. Since then, he’s issued dozens more pardons and commutations, including to former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and to Todd and Julie Chrisley, the reality TV stars convicted of bank fraud and tax evasion.
