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don beyer
'Naked Corruption': Trump Commutes Fraud Sentence of Ex-GOP Congressman George Santos
"Trump says it plainly: Crimes don’t count if you 'vote Republican,'" said one Democratic congressman. "Just like his pardons of those who violently attacked police."
Oct 18, 2025
Continuing his pattern of pardoning allies and prosecuting adversaries, President Donald Trump on Friday commuted the prison term of former Republican Congressman George Santos, who was less than three months into a seven year sentence for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
"George Santos was somewhat of a 'rogue,' but there are many rogues throughout our Country that aren't forced to serve seven years in prison," Trump wrote on his Truth Social network.
Once again, Trump randomly attacked Sen. Richard Blumenthal's (D-Conn.) admitted lie about taking part in the US invasion and occupation of Vietnam. Blumenthal was a Marine stationed stateside during the war, in which Trump—who has been derided as "Capt. Bone Spurs"—avoided serving.
"This is what a wannabe king does."
"He never went to Vietnam, he never saw Vietnam, he never experienced the Battles there, or anywhere else," Trump said of Blumenthal. "His War Hero status, and even minimal service in our Military, was totally and completely MADE UP."
"This is far worse than what George Santos did, and at least Santos had the Courage, Conviction, and Intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN!" the president added. "George has been in solitary confinement for long stretches of time and, by all accounts, has been horribly mistreated. Therefore, I just signed a Commutation, releasing George Santos from prison, IMMEDIATELY. Good luck George, have a great life!"
Santos was subsequently released from the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, New Jersey after 10:00 pm Friday.
According to a copy of the commutation posted on social media, Santos will also no longer have to pay $370,000 in court-ordered restitution to victims of his fraud. Trump's action does not erase Santos' conviction.
Santos, 37, resisted pressure to resign from Congress over lies about his education, employment, family, religion, residence, net worth, and more.
As The New York Times reported Friday:
Mr. Santos claimed that he was descended from Holocaust refugees. His mother, he said, had been in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. He claimed to be a college volleyball star. And Mr. Santos boasted of extensive Wall Street experience that allowed him to report loaning his campaign hundreds of thousands of dollars. None of that was true.
Between May and October 2023, Santos was indicted on 23 criminal counts including wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States.
In December 2023, House lawmakers voted 311-114 to remove the freshman lawmaker from office. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) was among the 112 Republicans and two Democrats who voted against expulsion. Santos became just the sixth lawmaker to ever be booted from the House.
In August 2024, Santos pleaded guilty to two felony counts of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. The following April, he was sentenced to 87 months behind bars and ordered to pay restitution and forfeiture totaling nearly $600,000.
Trump's commutation of Santos' sentence follows a series of high-profile acts of clemency. Most notorious among these was his blanket pardon earlier this year of more than 1,500 people charged in connection with the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection, for which the president—himself a 34-count convicted fraudster—was impeached for a historic second time. He was not convicted by the Senate either time.
George Santos is the 10th GOP Congressman to get a pardon or clemency from President Trump. The other nine were also all convicted of various criminal charges:
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— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree.bsky.social) October 17, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Friday's commutation also stands in stark contrast with the Trump administration's recent indictments of political foes including former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and former National Security Adviser John Bolton.
Critics were quick to note this pattern, which Congressman Don Beyer (D-Va.) called "naked corruption."
"George Santos pleaded guilty to identity theft and wire fraud, a small part of his lying and stealing that really hurt people," Beyer wrote on social media. "Trump says it plainly: Crimes don’t count if you 'vote Republican.' Just like his pardons of those who violently attacked police."
Wow, Trump just commuted disgraced former Congressman George Santos’ sentence.He must really want to distract from the Republican shutdown and the Epstein files.
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— Rep. Ted Lieu (@reptedlieu.bsky.social) October 17, 2025 at 4:46 PM
West Coast Trial Lawyers president Neama Rahmani said on X following Trump's announcement: "It's weeks away, but Trump is handing out pardons like Halloween candy. Disgraced former Rep. George Santos is the latest beneficiary, showing once again that flattering the president gets you everywhere."
"Sneaking it in on a Friday night means it will get less press too," Rahmani added. "I can’t wait for Santos’ first cameo appearance post-federal prison. Is Diddy the next recipient of Trump’s clemency?"
Congressman Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) also reacted to Trump's commutation on X, writing, "This is what a wannabe king does."
"Join us tomorrow at a No Kings rally near you," Pocan added, referring to the more than 2,700 pro-democracy demonstrations set to take place Saturday from coast to coast and around the world.
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'New Name, Still Cuts Medicaid': GOP Attempts Rebrand of Healthcare-Slashing Budget Bill Amid Dismal Polls
"Hey, so changing what you call this bill actually doesn’t change the harm that’s in it," said one Democratic senator. "Hope this helps!"
Sep 03, 2025
The Republican Party's massive budget law has shown itself to be decidedly unpopular with voters, as polls consistently show Americans opposed to its $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid.
Because of this, reported Punchbowl News' Jake Sherman, US President Donald Trump met with GOP members of Congress on Wednesday morning to discuss how to boost the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act's popularity.
According to Sherman, Trump's message to the GOP is that the bill will become popular if "they completely rebrand it and talk about it differently."
Politico similarly reported that Republicans in Congress have been eager to rebrand the bill after enduring "a spate of angry crowds at... town halls and alarming polling that shows dismal views of the bill's safety-net cuts and deficit impact."
As Common Dreams reported last month, Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.) faced angry constituents who yelled, "You cut our healthcare!" and called him a liar when he claimed the Medicaid cuts would improve healthcare services. Other Republicans have been confronted with similar outrage at town halls.
Republican pollsters are reportedly recommending that GOP lawmakers tout provisions in the bill such as eliminating taxes on some tips, although worker advocacy organization One Fair Wage has found that this provision won't benefit most tipped workers since two-thirds of them don't earn enough money to file federal income taxes.
In fact, New York Times congressional correspondent Annie Karni noted that Republicans started referring to the package as the "working families tax plan" after getting out of their Tuesday morning meeting.
But critics in the Democratic Party argued that a simple rebrand of the legislation is unlikely to be enough to rescue it in the court of public opinion, with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) emphasizing that the problems with the law stem not from marketing, but from its substance.
"The poorest 25% of workers lose money under this bill while the richest Americans get a $270,000 tax cut," he wrote while sharing a chart of Congressional Budget Office estimates of the impact the law will have on different income groups. "They can rebrand all they want. The facts are the facts. They screwed working people to help their billionaire and corporate donors."
Several other Democratic lawmakers similarly pounced to mock the GOP's attempted rebrand.
Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) sardonically offered advice to her Republican colleagues, writing: "Hey, so changing what you call this bill actually doesn’t change the harm that’s in it. Hope this helps!"
Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) suggested a more accurate renaming of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act would be the “Tax on Working Families” plan.
"Under the GOP tax law, billionaires got the big tax cuts. In fact, thanks to Republicans, many working families will actually see their taxes go up," said Beyer. "And Trump's tariffs are a huge tax hike on working Americans."
Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Penn.) ridiculed the White House for "desperately" trying to rebrand the package because "working families think the GOP's plan to sacrifice their healthcare and SNAP benefits to give billionaires a tax cut is a bad idea."
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Democrats Warn Against 'Massively Corrupt' Trump Golden Dome Plans
"We are concerned that Golden Dome will be much more effective at wasting taxpayer dollars than countering missile attacks," the lawmakers wrote.
Jul 08, 2025
A quartet of Democratic lawmakers are warning that U.S. President Donald Trump's plans to build a "Golden Dome" missile defense system could open the door to a corrupt boondoggle.
In a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Reps. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) and Don Beyer (D-Va.) made the case that the proposed missile defense system goes well beyond what is actually needed to defend the nation against foreign missile attacks.
"The Trump administration's plans for Golden Dome could make it prohibitively expensive, operationally ineffective, massively corrupt, and detrimental to U.S. and global security by igniting a nuclear arms race with Russia and China," the Democrats wrote. "We are concerned that Golden Dome will be much more effective at wasting taxpayer dollars than countering missile attacks. We urge you to rein in this dangerous plan."
The Democrats then pointed to estimates by the Congressional Budget Office that the system could cost up to $542 billion to complete, which is more than three times the cost that the Trump administration projected to have the system "fully operational" within the next four years.
They also warned about conflicts of interest posed by SpaceX, which is owned by estranged Trump ally Elon Musk, being awarded contracts to handle the project.
"In addition, U.S. Department of Defense recently announced plans to significantly scale back the Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, which in the past conducted essential testing of missile defense systems to ensure their military effectiveness," the lawmakers added. "As a result, the administration could rush ahead to award multibillion-dollar Golden Dome contracts with little ability to assess whether the money is being well-spent."
Trump has said that he was inspired to develop such a missile system for the United States after being impressed by Israel's "Iron Dome" system, despite the fact that Israel has a vastly smaller landmass to defend compared to the U.S. and has historically faced far more danger from missile and rocket attacks than the U.S.
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