(NewsNation) — Former Republican Congressman George Santos, freed from federal prison last week after a commutation from President Trump, is telling a new story about whether he’ll repay the victims he defrauded.
Santos was ordered to pay more than $370,000 in restitution, as part of his 87-month sentence for wire fraud and identity theft, but the president’s clemency order wiped those debts clean. On his image-rehabilitation tour in recent days, Santos told some media outlets he would not repay the money because he was not legally obligated to do so.
On Wednesday’s “CUOMO,” Santos appeared to pivot to a new response: He’ll try.
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“Look, I don’t have to, but I want to,” he said of the restitution he had been ordered to pay. “I guess that would definitely be a great start for me to prove to people that my actions are different than my past words and actions and transgressions.”
Santos said any repayments would need to go through some sort of “official mechanism” for disbursement. He said his legal team is working on it.
“You can’t just nilly willy go up to people and say, ‘Oh, here’s a check,’” Santos said.
In his plea agreement, Santos, once a young and rising star in the Republican Party, admitted to stealing money from donors and committing credit card fraud. His brief career in Congress was tarnished by scandals that included puffing up his biography for the 2022 midterm elections.
The clemency granted by Trump is the latest example of the president coming to the rescue of a GOP member convicted in federal court. In announcing the Santos commutation on social media, Trump called the former lawmaker “somewhat of a ‘rogue’” but said he “had the Courage, Conviction, and Intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN!”
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Santos disagreed the president’s commutations have been based on political considerations, noting that Trump also wiped the slate clean for former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat who was convicted of public corruption charges.
“I think it’s disingenuous to think that this is political, but I understand the concern,” he said.
