Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has asked President Donald Trump and the Department of Justice's Office of the Pardon Attorney to commute the sentence of former GOP Rep. George Santos, who is serving a prison sentence for campaign-related offenses.
"A 7-year prison sentence for campaign-related charges is excessive, especially when Members of Congress who’ve done far worse still walk free," the Georgia Republican said on X Monday night, where she also posted a copy of her letter.
"George Santos has taken responsibility," Greene added. "He’s shown remorse. It’s time to correct this injustice. We must demand equal justice under the law!
Greene, in her letter, requested a commutation, which would permit his release from prison, but not a pardon, which would expunge the conviction.
Santos, of New York, started serving his prison sentence in July on a conviction of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges.
The former congressman was ousted by his House colleagues in 2023, barely a year after he was sworn into office, over allegations of lying about his life story and defrauding donors.
The details of his actions were compiled in a House Ethics Committee report, which triggered the lawmakers' vote to expel him.
Santos admitted to having deceived donors and stealing the identities of almost a dozen people, including members of his family, to fund his campaign. As part of a plea deal, he also agreed to pay about $580,000 in penalties.
Trump last week was noncommittal on pardoning Santos, telling Newsmax's Rob Finnerty that the former congressman "lied like hell" but "his vote was solid."
"I didn't know him, but he was 100% for Trump," he said. "I might have met him. Maybe, maybe not, I don't know. But he was a congressman and his vote was solid."
Trump added that "you could blame" Democrats for "not checking him out."
"He didn't do all those things that he said," he said. "Everybody missed it. They found out about this stuff after the election was won."
Trump also told Finnerty that "nobody's talked to me" about pardoning Santos.
Santos, meanwhile, has said repeatedly that he has asked the Trump administration to consider a pardon. He also claimed on social media, weeks before he reported to prison, that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., "blocked" the administration from allowing him clemency.
Trump has granted clemency to several people during the first months of his second term, including, on his first day in office, to hundreds of people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, incidents at the Capitol.
He also has issued pardons and commutations to dozens of other people, including former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley.
Santos, during the nearly two weeks he has been in federal lockup, has published two columns about the experience in The South Shore Press, a Long Island newspaper, reported The New York Times.
"I haven’t given up," he said in Monday's column. "I won’t. Because this moment in my life, as bitter and brutal as it is, will not define the whole story. It’s only a chapter. And like any good book, the best chapters are still unwritten."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.