Trump commutes George Santos’ sentence, roiling Nassau politics

WASHINGTON — Serial fabulist George Santos has told a lot of whoppers. But his abrupt release from federal prison after serving less than three months of his 7-year sentence is a head-turner many Long Islanders and others nationally find particularly hard to believe, only it’s true.

President Donald Trump’s commutation Friday of the former Long Island GOP congressman’s sentence for fraud and identify theft already has become an issue in the Nassau County executive’s race, with voting a little more than a week away.

“This is the exact opposite of law and order,” said Seth Koslow, the Democrat running to unseat Republican Bruce Blakeman, in an interview Saturday.

“Disgust” and “outrage,” said the former prosecutor, describing reactions he was hearing Saturday along the campaign stump; he called on Blakeman to send a clear message condemning Trump’s commutation of Santos’ sentence.

Blakeman, in a later statement, did not respond by mentioning Trump — but instead a different president.

“I am proud that I was an early voice calling for Santos to resign from the House. Recognizing that his behavior was totally unacceptable,” Blakeman said. But he added, “critics of the commutation are the same ones who silently stood by while President [Joe] Biden pardoned his son Hunter.”

Among Santos’ admissions prior to his federal sentencing in April were misdeeds ranging from identify theft, credit card fraud, embezzling funds from donors, and lying on campaign finance reports and reports to Congress.

But Trump’s announcement that he had commuted Santos’ sentence on the social media platform Truth Social, highlighted something else instead — that Santos had been a loyal Republican.

Trump did cast Santos as “somewhat of a rogue.” He also explained that Santos — who in July reported to a minimum-security prison in New Jersey — had spent long stretches in solitary confinement and “by all accounts, has been horribly treated.”

But Trump emphasized that “Santos always had the Courage, Conviction and Intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN!” referring to his time serving in the House of Representatives. Santos served there from January 2023 to Dec. 1, 2023, until his House colleagues voted 311 to 114 to expel him.

Santos’ lawyer Joseph Murray after the commutation posted a thank-you to Trump and members of the Department of Justice, and as well as to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican who had been urging for Santos’ relief.

Murray also pointed to support Santos received from Reps Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Trump’s onetime attorney general nominee who instead quit Congress in November a month before House investigators found evidence against him of ethical violations.

Santos is the latest of at least 16 former federal and state politicians for which Trump as president has pardoned or commuted sentences for wrongdoing, the D.C.-based Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington noted, casting that as Trump’s pattern of decriminalizing political corruption.

At the same time, Trump in his second term has made a big priority to an even tougher-on-crime approach, including deploying National Guard troops across state lines to cities he claims are “overrun” by crime.

“The justice system only works if it applies to everyone, letting Santos off the hook is a disappointment, but not a surprise,” said Jordan Libowitz, of the D.C.-based Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

On Long Island, the Santos commutation hits closer to home. 

Pete Sammis, 63, of Huntington, standing under the trestle of the Hicksville Long Island Rail Road train station Saturday afternoon, said he felt there was a lack of fairness in Trump releasing Santos from prison. “I don’t think it’s right, but to the winner go the spoils,” he said.

Some are questioning why Trump did it. But Sammis said, Trump “does everything for a reason” and suggested the president has purpose or motivations for helping the ex-Republican congressman.

Kevin Fogarty, 70, of Hicksville, said it’s not uncommon for people to serve lighter sentences than what they’re sentenced: “The whole system is so screwed up.”

The president’s decision, he added, is “not surprising” since, Trump and Santos “are two of a kind.”

The Island’s two Republican congressmen, Reps. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport) and Nick LaLota (R-Amityville) — who both pushed early on for Santos to be ousted from Congress before Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) — emphasized Friday that serving 3 months in prison for his crimes was not enough, and how the victims should be made whole.

Garbarino did mention Trump by name, doing so to note the president has discretion to commute sentences.

But Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove), the Democrat who now holds Santos’ former 3rd C.D. House seat covering mostly part of Nassau County, but also extending into Queens, continued his determination to no longer comment on his predecessor, declining on Saturday to comment on Trump’s commutation of Santos’ sentence.

Suozzi’s reasoning was that he’d said all he needed to say about Santos, doing so in a 2023 column criticizing the Republican. But he did not make it particularly clear Saturday in a brief discussion about why his constituents — who were Santos’ constituents — might not be interested in or no longer needed to hear his take on more-recent developments.

The commutation also served to return people’s minds to how Santos got elected to Congress in the first place. Nassau County GOP Chairman Joe Cairo, in a statement Saturday, reminded that he, the county committee and all of Nassau County’s elected Republicans had called for Santos’ expulsion from Congress.

But during a January 2023 news conference after Santos’ lies to voters and fabrications of his personal life came to light, Cairo said at a news conference, “We did not know him,” and “We trusted him. And shame on us for that.”

In a statement provided Saturday after Trump’s commutation of Santos’ sentence, Cairo said: “Our focus remains on justifying the public’s confidence in government and ensuring that the Republican Party continues to stand for ethical leadership, transparency and service the people.”

Joseph Ostapiuk contributed to this story.