Emotional Santos Pleads With Trump To Grant Him a Pardon or Commutation, Says He Fears Being ‘Severely Brutalized’ in Prison

The former congressman is facing more than seven years in prison after he pleaded guilty to wire fraud and identity theft charges.

AP/Julia Demaree Nikhinson
George Santos arrives at federal court for sentencing, April 25, 2025, at Central Islip, N.Y. AP/Julia Demaree Nikhinson

A disgraced former congressman, George Santos, is making an emotional plea for President Trump to grant him some kind of clemency as he is staring down an 87-month prison sentence and says he fears being “severely brutalized.”

Santos appeared on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” Thursday evening and was asked, “Given that the clock is ticking and you’re gonna be in prison in 80-odd days, if Donald Trump is watching this interview, do you want to make a personal plea to him?”

Santos explained that he had previously not sought a pardon because he did not know his sentence. However, now that he is looking at more than seven years in prison, he said he is “in the process of filling out an application for a pardon from the president.”

“I’ll take a commutation, clemency, whatever the president is willing to give me, and you know, I don’t want this to seem like a political pitch, I want it to be a fair pitch, and I think [there’s] no one better than President Trump to know what a weaponized justice department looks like, and you know, this is exactly it,” Santos said. “Seven years and three months in prison for a first-time offender over campaign matters just screams over-the-top, and I would appreciate it if the president would consider [it].”

Santos then raised concerns about his safety due to legislation he voted for while in Congress, which he said led to “at least 90” people being incarcerated “within the local vicinity of New York” in low-security prisons.

He said he is not afraid of being killed, but is concerned about being “severely brutalized” in prison.

Santos started to grow emotional as he spoke about how he would miss “massive swaths of parts of my family’s life” and his niece, who he said he co-parents with his sister. 

As Mr. Morgan started talking about the emotional toll of the prison sentence, Santos was seen wiping away tears. 

In August, Santos pleaded guilty to federal felony charges of wire fraud and identity theft. He was elected to the House in 2022 but was expelled in 2023 after it was discovered that much of his biography was fictitious, and as he faced federal charges for stealing personal identification and financial information from donors and making fraudulent charges to their credit cards. He is only the third House member to be expelled from the chamber since the Civil War.

He was sentenced to 87 months in prison by Judge Joanna Seybert, who questioned why he did not seem to be remorseful for his “flagrant thievery.”


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