President Trump’s use of the pardon and commutation power for political allies is renewing speculation that he could grant some relief to convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, who has been cooperating with both the Department of Justice and congressional reviews of the Jeffrey Epstein affair. On Friday, Mr. Trump freed Congressman George Santos from prison because he had the “Courage, Conviction, and Intelligence” to be a member of the GOP. 

Santos pleaded guilty last year to several charges, including wire fraud and identity theft, after being expelled from Congress in an effort led by fellow Republicans. Mr. Trump released the former congressman from prison on Friday night, where he was serving a 7-year sentence. Santos is also now no longer required to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution to his victims. 

“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,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday, praising Santos for having “the Courage, Conviction, and Intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN!”

Santos himself said he was surprised to learn that the president had given him his freedom. He told CNN on Sunday morning that his fellow inmates called him into a room on Friday night to show him a television news program reporting that his sentence had been commuted. 

“I had no expectations. I wasn’t even aware until I learned it off of the chyron of mainstream media inside of the prison,” Santos said. 

Mr. Trump has long been fond of using his clemency powers to help out friends and allies, though he has grown more bold in asserting those powers since President Biden pardoned members of his family, Democratic Party allies, and members of the January 6 committee shortly before he left the White House in early 2025. 

On his first day back behind the Resolute Desk, the president pardoned more than 1,500 individuals charged with crimes related to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. In the first nine months of his second term, the president has granted clemency to more than 1,600 people, marking the highest number of clemency grants by a president in his first year in history.

In 2017, Mr. Trump barely used his clemency powers, granting just one pardon during the entire calendar year. 

Many have for months been watching what Mr. Trump may do with respect to Maxwell, who is now serving a 20-year sentence at a minimum security prison in Texas to which she was transferred after she met with a justice department lawyer, Todd Blanche. The Supreme Court has declined to take up her appeal, thus exhausting all of her avenues for relief in the judiciary. 

Mr. Trump, however, could give Maxwell an off-ramp. She has been cooperating with the justice department’s review of the investigation into Epstein and how it was handled. That review of the Epstein affair is being led by Mr. Blanche, who was formerly Mr. Trump’s personal criminal defense attorney. 

During her interview with Mr. Blanche, Maxwell absolved Mr. Trump of any potential implication of child sexual abuse. “I actually never saw the president in any type of massage setting,” Maxwell reportedly told justice department officials. 

“I never witnessed the president in any inappropriate setting in any way,” she added. “The president was never inappropriate with anybody. In the times that I was with him, he was a gentleman in all respects.”

Mr. Trump has consistently declined to rule out a pardon or commutation for Maxwell. When she was first indicted in 2019, the president wished her well, saying he had met her “numerous” times over the years. 

During a press event with reporters on October 6, the president said he would take a look at granting clemency to Maxwell after the Supreme Court declined to hear her appeal. 

“I haven’t heard the name in so long,” Mr. Trump said when asked about Maxwell. “I can say this — that I’d have to take a look at it. I would have to take a look.”

“I’ll take a look at it. I’ll speak to the DOJ,” the president added. “I wouldn’t consider it or not consider [it]. I don’t know anything about it. I will speak to the DOJ.”