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George Santos, the disgraced former Republican congressman, was freed from prison on Friday after President Trump commuted his sentence. On Long Island, in his former district, some people called the decision an outrage.
Oct. 18, 2025, 4:04 p.m. ET
In the hours after President Trump’s announcement that he had commuted the prison sentence of George Santos, the disgraced former Republican congressman, New York politicians and some voters greeted the news with a mix of anger and frustration.
“George Santos is a convicted con artist,” Representative Nicole Malliotakis, a New York Republican, said in a statement on Saturday. “That will forever be his legacy, and I disagree with the commutation.”
Robert Zimmerman, a Democrat who lost to Mr. Santos in a 2022 congressional race, said in a post on social media that “this decision demonstrates the lawlessness of the Trump administration.”
“Donald Trump is trying to put his political enemies in jail while he frees George Santos for the unconscionable crimes he committed,” he added.
Mr. Santos, 37, had been serving a seven-year sentence at a federal prison in New Jersey after pleading guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. He was released on Friday night, after Mr. Trump announced in a social media post that he had cut the sentence short, citing their shared politics and his belief that the sentence had been excessive.
Mr. Santos’s release, which came amid a wave of clemency that the president has granted to his political allies and other right-wing figures, was the latest chapter in an improbable political career.
