名誉扫地的前国会议员乔治·桑托斯周日表示，在唐纳德·特朗普总统之后，他不会逃脱他的罪行给他减刑因为电信诈骗和严重的身份盗窃。
“我理解人们想把这件事说成‘他侥幸逃脱了’。”我没有逃脱惩罚，我是第一个因民事违规而进联邦监狱的人...我不想专注于试图重复过去，我想吸取经验，做好事，继续未来。后悔是轻描淡写。我得到了第二次机会，”桑托斯说。
作为认罪协议的一部分，桑托斯同意支付近60万美元的赔偿和没收。
在美国有线电视新闻网(CNN)的“国情咨文”节目中，当被问及是否计划回报捐赠者时，桑托斯表示，他将“尽最大努力做好法律要求我做的一切。”
根据赦免书，一个照片其中由美国赦免律师埃德·马丁(Ed Martin)发布在X上，特朗普批准桑托斯“立即将他的整个刑期减刑为服刑时间，不再罚款、归还、缓刑、监督释放或其他条件。”
在福克斯新闻频道“福克斯”节目的采访中&朋友周末，”桑托斯说，“我不再与法律有任何瓜葛。我没有赔偿。我没有缓刑。"
37岁的桑托斯在美国服兵役不到三个月在联邦监狱服刑七年.
特朗普在社交媒体平台上宣布减刑时表示，桑托斯受到了“可怕的虐待”，并称他“有点像‘流氓’”，但“至少桑托斯有勇气、信念和智慧，总是投票给共和党!”
桑托斯在2024年8月认罪，并承认声称亲属为他的竞选捐款，而事实上，他们没有。桑托斯承认，他正在努力达到筹款门槛，以便有资格获得全国共和党国会委员会的财政帮助。
他还承认自己犯有其他欺诈行为，包括未经授权向捐赠者的信用卡收费，以及通过谎称钱将用于电视广告来说服捐赠者捐款。他还说，他在疫情期间申请并领取了他无权领取的失业救济金，从而窃取了公共资金。
桑托斯周日声称，其他人，如前总统乔·拜登(Joe Biden)，也出于政治原因使用了他们的赦免权，“所以请原谅我，如果我没有太多关注我的批评者和人民(主要是左翼人士)的愤怒，他们将走出去，试图在这样的事情上小题大做。”
“人们会喜欢我的。人们会恨我的。不管将来谁会得到宽恕，也不管那个人是谁，”他说。“如果特朗普总统赦免了耶稣基督，我很有信心离开了十字架，他就会受到批评。这就是我们国家的现实。"
桑托斯说，他不排除未来的政治抱负，但不是在“未来十年”
“我37岁了。我可以告诉你这一点，而不是我在未来十年可以看到的，”他说。"我完全被政治套牢了。"
他说他在监狱里的时间让他想专注于监狱改革。
“今天的美国大约有25万名联邦囚犯，我认为减少这个数字会好得多。如果我能对此有所帮助，我会的，我认为这将是未来的一条伟大道路，”桑托斯说。
Santos says he's not getting away with his crimes after Trump commuted his sentence
Disgraced former congressman George Santos said Sunday he's not getting away with his crimes after President Donald Trumpcommuted his sentencefor wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
"I understand people want to make this into 'He's getting away with it.' I'm not getting away with it, I was the first person to ever go to federal prison for a civil violation ... I don't want to focus on trying to rehash the past and want to take the experience and do good and move on with the future. Repentance is an understatement. I have been dealt a second chance,” Santos said.
As part of his plea deal, Santos agreed to pay nearly $600,000 in restitution and forfeiture.
Asked on CNN's "State of the Union" if he planned to pay back donors, Santos said he would "do my best to do whatever the law requires of me."
According to the clemency grant, aphotoof which was posted on X by U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin, Trump granted Santos an "immediate commutation of his entire sentence to time served with no further fines, restitution, probation, supervised release, or other conditions."
In an interview on Fox News' "Fox&Friends Weekend," Santos said, "I do not have any pendencies with the law anymore. I have no restitution. I have no probation.”
Santos, 37, was less than three months into serving aseven-year sentence in federal prison.
In announcing the commutation on his social media platform, Trump said Santos had been "horribly mistreated" and called him a "bit of a 'rogue,'" but "at least Santos had the Courage, Conviction, and Intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN!”
Santos pleaded guilty in August 2024 and admitted to claiming relatives had made contributions to his campaign when, in fact, they had not. Santos conceded he was trying to meet the fundraising threshold to qualify for financial help from the National Republican Congressional Committee.
He also stipulated that he committed other fraud, including charging donor credit cards without authorization and convincing donors to give money by falsely stating the money would be used for TV ads. He also stipulated he stole public money by applying for and receiving unemployment benefits during the pandemic to which he was not entitled.
Santos claimed Sunday that others, like former President Joe Biden, had also used their pardon power for politically charged reasons, "So pardon me if I'm not paying too much attention to the pearl-clutching of the outrage 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."
"People are going to like me. People are going to hate me. It doesn't matter whoever gets clemency in the future, or whoever that person might be," he said. "I'm pretty confident if President Trump had pardoned Jesus Christoff the cross, he would have had critics. So that's just the reality of our country."
Santos said he wasn’t ruling out future political aspirations, but not within the "next decade."
"I'm 37 years old. I can tell you this, not that I can see in the next decade," he said. "I am all politicked out."
He said his time behind bars made him want to focus on prison reform.
"America today has 250,000 federal inmates, approximately, and I think it would be much nicer to look at reducing that number. And if I can be a part of helping that, I would, I think that would be a great road to follow in the future," Santos said.
