The 23-count indictment filed Tuesday replaces one filed in May against the New York Republican charging him with embezzling money from his campaign and lying to Congress about his wealth, among other offenses.
George Santos was convicted, expelled from Congress, and sentenced to seven years in prison. He went there in late July. Now, less than three months later, Trump commuted his sentence.
Trump has a "birds of a feather" policy.
Trump's statement explaining his commutation has an extended potshot at Sen. Richard Blumenthal, including a childish nickname, regarding allegations he padded his Vietnam record.
This is the usual "look a squirrel!" troll behavior. We are being governed by an Internet troll. Republicans don't want to do anything about it. This is another reminder they are chickenshit shitheads.
Talking about animals:
The statement also says Santos is "something of a rogue," but was a loyal Republican. Again, it being Trump, he doesn't just say that. He notes Santos "has Courage, Conviction, and Intelligence" to always vote Republican (all caps).
He tosses in that Santos was in solitary confinement for long stretches of time (he wasn't in prison for three months) and that seven years was too long a sentence. That might be debatable (I don't know the going rate), but the appropriate time was more than three months.
(He was sentenced to 87 months and served 84 days, which is just wrong. Just have him serve three more days. These people can't do anything right.)
He was not just a "rogue" and a repeat joke on Late Night shows. Santos was guilty of multiple crimes, including those that involved stealing money from people. He abused his office, besmirching the people's House. He hurt people. To cite one thing:
U.S. Rep. George Santos stole the identities of donors to his campaign and then used their credit cards to ring up tens of thousands of dollars in unauthorized charges, according to a new indictment.
Just a lovable scamp! Notably, he is not only being released from prison. The clemency grant involves "immediate commutation of his entire sentence to time served with no further fines, restitution, probation, supervised release, or other conditions."
Just adding insult to injury.
Various news articles reported the commutation and Trump statement without providing suitable clarifying details. For instance, a quick check shows the "solitary confinement" occurred after a death threat. It was done for his safety.
(It is generally best just not to trust anything Trump says, but an accuracy check should be a basic news procedure.)
This is petty corruption. The little things sometimes grate the most. They can just be that blatant. This is not on the level of the pardons/commutations of those involved in 1/6. But it is a blatant abuse of the pardon power for partisan ends.
Again, our anger should be broadly expressed. The Republicans in Congress refuse to do much at all, other than some of them sometimes acting concerned, to do anything about him. They are all enablers.
Today is No Kings Protest Day. Let's also have no trolls. Trump should be blocked.
ETA: Not too surprisingly, his former N.Y. Republican colleagues were not a big fan of his good luck. This is what your guy stands for, so tough luck.
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Related: "A federal prosecutor who resisted President Trump’s demands to bring charges against Letitia James, the New York state attorney general, was fired along with her deputy on Friday evening, according to three people familiar with the matter."
A con artist, however, his right up their alley.