In a ridiculous Instagram post the day before he headed off to federal prison for what was supposed to be a more than seven-year sentence, disgraced ex-congressman and known fabulist George Santos wrote, “I may be leaving the stage (for now), but trust me legends never truly exit.”
Less than three months later, Santos is back, following President Donald Trump’s announcement Friday night that he was commuting Santos’ sentence for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. And less than 48 hours after that, Santos is already back in the limelight of the Sunday morning interview circuit.
On Sunday morning, he sat down with CNN’s Dana Bash on State of the Union to address questions about his pardon and his post-prison plans. He alternated between claiming prison humbled him and insisting his sentence was unfair.
Santos claimed he had “no expectations” for a pardon and that he only found out about it when fellow inmates told him they saw the news announced on TV. (Joseph Murray, Santos’ lawyer, told my colleague Noah Lanard that he was in “constant communication” with lawyers at the Justice Department’s pardon office.) He told Bash that his seven-year sentence—for participating in a credit card fraud scheme to boost his campaign finances and using some of those funds for personal purchases like designer clothing and OnlyFans content—was “disproportionate,” and called for a pardon for his former staffer Sam Miele, who was sentenced to a year in prison for wire fraud for his role in Santos’ scheme.
Santos essentially admitted to Bash he would not pay $370,000 in restitution to his victims, given that Trump’s pardon wipes out that obligation. “If it’s required of me by the law, yes, if it’s not, then no,” he said. “I will do whatever the law requires me to do.”
Santos described his time in prison “a great equalizer” and “very sobering.” And like many formerly incarcerated celebrities, Santos said he now wants to work on prison reform that he’s free. “I told this to the President, that I’d love to be involved with prison reform, and not in a partisan way, in a real human way, in a way that we effect it, that it helps society, it helps these individuals rebuild their lives, and we have a better system with less incarcerated people.”
He apologized to his constituents, supporters, and ex-colleagues, and said that he has no plans to run for office within the next decade.
Meanwhile, some of Santos’ fellow New York Republicans have been vocal about their opposition to Santos’ pardon.
Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) wrote on X: “George Santos didn’t merely lie—he stole millions, defrauded an election, and his crimes (for which he pled guilty) warrant more than a three-month sentence. He should devote the rest of his life to demonstrating remorse and making restitution to those he wronged.” Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), an Ethics Committee member who voted for Santos’ expulsion, said Santos “has shown no remorse,” adding, “The less than three months that he spent in prison is not justice.” In a statement provided to the New York Times, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) called Santos “a convicted con artist,” adding, “That will forever be his legacy, and I disagree with the commutation.” On CNN Sunday, Malliotakis said she thought Santos’ sentence was too long but that the time he served was “not sufficient.”
Asked by Bash about LaLota’s and Garbarino’s comments, Santos replied, “They’re entitled to their opinion.” He added that he is focused on the future. “I’ve learned a great deal and a very large slice of humble pie, if not the entire pie, for the experience I had [in prison].”
“I don’t know how much more humbled I can get before people believe I’m humbled or remorseful, but I can just do the best in my actions moving forward,” he added.
But later in the interview, Santos seemed to dismiss the critiques of his pardon, pointing to former President Joe Biden’s pardoning of his family members before leaving office. “Pardon me if I’m not paying too much attention to the pearl-clutching of the outrage of my of my critics and of the people, predominantly on the left, who are going to go out there and try to make a big deal out of something like this,” he said.
“I’m pretty confident if President Trump had pardoned Jesus Christ off the cross,” he added, “he would have had critics.”
For all his talk about humility, though, Santos is already back to hawking direct-to-camera personalized videos on Cameo for $300 a pop. (He once tried to get me to buy one.) As of press time, he last recorded one just after 9 a.m. Sunday morning—likely just before, or after, he appeared on CNN.
