The former Republican congressman George Santossentenced to seven years in prison for financial crimes, is released after the intervention of President Trump who announced a commutation of his sentence.

“George Santos was a ‘crook’ in a way, but there are plenty of crooks in our country who don’t have to serve seven years in prison.”Trump wrote in a post on the Truth Social platform. “Therefore, I have just signed a commutation (of the sentence), releasing George Santos IMMEDIATELY,” underlined.

Accused of forging identities and misusing donor funds during his 2022 election campaign, the 37-year-old former lawmaker pleaded guilty and was sentenced in April. He was taken to prison in July.

Before facing justice, Mr George Santos became famous when the newspaper New York Times began exposing, in a series of publications after his election to Congress, falsehoods on his resume and in his campaign.

Rather unknown locally, Santos based his entire image on lies and exaggerations: about his education, about his religion, about his professional experience, about his wealth. Often wearing large sunglasses, arrogant, very active on social networking sites, he presented himself as the son of Brazilian immigrants and grandson of Holocaust survivors living the “American dream.”

But many details on his resume turned out to be lies, thanks to the revelations of the New York Times: he had not received a degree from Baruch College in New York, nor had he worked at the banks Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.

The novel-like affair between fantasy and reality has drawn comparisons with “great gatsby”. He declared himself a victim “witch hunt” and for months he turned a deaf ear to calls for him to resign.

His exploits at some point ceased to amuse Congress, especially after the release of a report by the ethics committee of the House of Representatives which emphasized that he caused serious damage to the image of the institution. Among other things, it said that the former congressman recklessly spent money he misused to buy Ferragamo luxury goods, play in casinos, get Botox injections, pay for the sex video platform OnlyFans.

In December 2023, in a rare show of consensus, Democrats and Republicans voted to expel him from the House of Representatives.