Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is urging the Trump administration to commute the sentence of former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), who was sentenced to seven years in jail earlier this yr to wire fraud and aggravated identification theft.
Greene shared a letter on Monday in a post on X that she stated she had despatched to the Workplace of the Pardon Lawyer urging President Trump to commute Santos’s sentence.
“A 7-year jail sentence for campaign-related expenses is extreme, particularly when Members of Congress who’ve carried out far worse nonetheless stroll free,” Greene stated in her publish. “George Santos has taken accountability. He is proven regret. It is time to right this injustice. We should demand equal justice underneath the regulation!”
Santos, 37, surrendered to the Federal Correctional Establishment (FCI) Fairton in New Jersey in late July, formally capping off the New York Republican’s dramatic rise-and-fall in politics that noticed him ascend as a GOP trailblazer earlier than plunging to shame.
After Santos was elected to the Home of Representatives in 2022, the story he’d told about his life began to unravel, exposing a collection of outlandish lies. He was hit with 23 felony expenses lower than a yr into his first time period, spanning wire fraud and aggravated identification theft to false statements and falsifying data.
Santos acknowledged his drama-filled tenure in Congress in a social media publish revealed the day earlier than he reported to jail.
“Commuting his sentence would acknowledge the severity of his actions and concurrently present a path ahead in permitting him to make amends for his crimes and attempt to raised serve the individuals in his neighborhood,” Greene stated in her letter.
Greene’s plea comes after Trump did not rule out a pardon for Santos throughout a Newsmax interview that aired on Friday.
“He lied like hell,” Trump stated within the interview.
“And I did not know him, however he was 100% for Trump,” he continued, including that “his vote was strong” when he was in Congress.
The president additionally stated that nobody has talked to him a few pardon for the previous GOP lawmaker, who was expelled from the House in 2023. Santos has stated he will likely be looking for clemency from Trump.