Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY) said he was “not happy” about President Donald Trump’s decision to grant clemency to former Republican New York Rep. George Santos on Friday.
LaLota was one of several congressional Republicans who first demanded Santos’s resignation in 2023. Santos pleaded guilty in August 2024 to several felony charges, including wire fraud and money laundering. Trump commuted Santos’s seven-year prison sentence on Friday after Santos served nearly three months in Fairton, New Jersey’s Federal Correctional Institution.
“Three months is not enough of a sentence for all the crimes he committed. George Santos was and is a distraction from serious lawmakers,” LaLota said in an interview with CNN’s Manu Raju.
Following accusations that he lied to his constituents about his personal finances, campaign contributions, and campaign supporters, Santos was expelled from the House of Representatives in December 2023 after less than a year.
“He’s not only a liar, but he stole. He stole $3 million in campaign funds from many of my constituents, many of my supporters who got built by him and his lies. He stole an election, defrauded voters of New York’s 3rd Congressional District, a district that borders mine,” said LaLota, who represents New York’s 1st Congressional District on Long Island.
Though he broke with Trump’s decision to commute the disgraced congressman, LaLota called Santos a distraction from Trump’s “awesome accomplishments” and from the administration’s agenda. He criticized the clemency power in general, pointing to former President Joe Biden preemptively pardoning his own family members.
“The conversation on clemency is only a complete one if we analyze all the different executives who have granted clemency or pardons or commutations to other individuals,” LaLota said.
Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA), who voted twice to expel Santos from the House, did not denounce Trump’s decision to pardon Santos. He told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, “I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have,” on whether he would have commuted Santos’s sentence.
“That’s for the president to say,” Kiley said. “I don’t make it a practice of commenting on each individual pardon that a president grants.”
SANTOS SAYS HE’S ‘VERY GRATEFUL’ FOR TRUMP COMMUTATION, WANTS TO PURSUE PRISON REFORM
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) also stood by Trump’s decision to pardon Santos.
“The president has the right under the Constitution for pardon and commutation, of course,” Johnson said on ABC’s This Week. “We believe in redemption. This is a personal belief of mine. And I hope Mr. Santos makes the most of his second chance.”