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Photo: Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images

On Friday, President Donald Trump commuted the sentence of former representative George Santos, who had served about three months of a seven-plus-year sentence, after he pleaded guilty to counts of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft last year. Trump claimed Santos had been “horribly mistreated” while incarcerated.

As part of his plea deal, Santos was ordered to pay nearly $374,000 in restitution to his victims, including campaign contributors he stole financial information from and whose donations ultimately went to Santos’s own bank accounts. In an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday, Santos signaled that he would only pay back that money if forced.

“If it’s required of me by the law, yes. If it’s not, then no. I will do whatever the law requires me to do,” Santos said.

BASH: “You were ordered by the court to pay $370,000 in restitution to the people you defrauded… Will you work to try to do that?”SANTOS: “I can do my best to do whatever the law requires of me. So I don’t know what that is… If it’s required of me by the law, yes. If it’s… pic.twitter.com/EVBHKzKGTg

— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) October 19, 2025

Santos struck a different, more defiant tone during an interview on Fox & Friends Weekend, telling the anchors that he doesn’t need to pay back any of the purported victims and criticizing that aspect of his original sentence as “really insane.”

“I do not have any pendencies with the law anymore. I have no restitution. I have no probation,” Santos said.

It does appear that Santos has been absolved of his responsibility to make his victims whole. Ed Martin, the Justice Department’s pardon attorney, shared a photo of the official documentation of Santos’s commutation bearing Trump’s signature. The document says that Trump granted Santos “an immediate commutation of his entire sentence to time served with no further fines, restitution, probation, supervised release or other conditions.”

pic.twitter.com/XGkJy6gml8

— Ed Martin (@EdMartinDOJ) October 17, 2025

Trump’s commutation marked an end to another winding chapter of the political saga that began when a virtually unknown Santos won an open House in a New York House district spanning Queens and Long Island in 2022. In the months after Santos was sworn in, questions emerged about his employment history and his own background as well as his campaign finances. By the fall of 2023, Santos faced a staggering 23 federal counts related to wire fraud, money laundering, and other offenses, which was followed by a House Ethics report that alleged the representative committed “grave and pervasive campaign finance violations and fraudulent activity.” Santos became only the sixth member in the chamber’s history to be expelled from the U.S. House of Representatives.

Since leaving prison, Santos acknowledged that he has “made mistakes” and expressed gratitude to Trump for giving him a second chance. He said that he intends to focus on “prison reform and accountability” as he looks toward his next steps.

“As I step into this next chapter of my life, I do so with lessons learned and eyes open. I do not carry shame, I carry purpose. My goal now is to turn my past into something meaningful, to help create a justice system that truly believes in rehabilitation and second chances,” he said on social media.

George Santos Doesn’t Plan to Pay His Victims

George Santos Doesn’t Plan to Pay His Victims