Disgraced former Rep. George Santos, contemporary off his launch from jail after President Donald Trump commuted his sentence on Friday evening, dismissed his critics, telling NCS he’s targeted on the long run after consuming a “very large slice of humble pie” throughout his time behind bars.
Santos, who had been serving a seven-year term for the fraud fees that bought him ousted from Congress, mentioned he had simply been launched from solitary confinement when his fellow inmates noticed information of the commutation on tv and informed him.
“I had no expectations,” Santos informed anchor Dana Bash on “State of the Union” on Sunday.
Some Republicans from New York, the place Santos served, weren’t pleased with the president’s resolution. Rep. Nick LaLota posted on social media that Santos “didn’t merely lie — he stole millions, defrauded an election, and his crimes (for which he pled guilty) warrant more than a three-month sentence.”
LaLota added that Santos ought to “devote the rest of his life to demonstrating remorse and making restitution to those he wronged.”
Rep. Andrew Garbarino, in a statement to the Washington Times, mentioned Santos “has shown no remorse. The less than three months that he spent in prison is not justice.”
Santos mentioned on Sunday his former colleagues are “entitled to their opinion.”
“People are going to hate me. It doesn’t matter whoever gets clemency in the future, whoever that person might be. I’m pretty confident that if President Trump had pardoned Jesus Christ off of the cross, he would have had critics. So that’s just the reality of our country.”
He claimed he had obtained a “a seven-year disproportionate sentence that is anything but political if you talk to anybody who really looks at these kinds of cases.”
Santos is now not required to pay any additional fines, restitution, probation or different circumstances, according to a copy of his clemency grant which was posted on social media by US Pardon Attorney Ed Martin.
Asked if he can pay his donors again, Santos mentioned Sunday he’ll “do my best to do whatever the law requires of me.”
“The investment was made to win a race. I won that race,” Santos mentioned. “There was no fraud there.”
He mentioned he’s now “going to look to the future,” apologizing to the American folks and folks in his former district, saying he was in a “chaotic ball of flames” on the time he dedicated his crimes.
Santos mentioned his expertise in jail, particularly in solitary confinement, has impressed him to deal with serving to with jail reform efforts, one thing he had spoken with the president about.
“It’s actually creating recidivism because it’s not doing what it’s supposed to do,” Santos mentioned of the jail system. “I told this to the president, that I’d love to be involved with prison reform, and not in a partisan way.”
Santos mentioned he didn’t see himself returning to politics within the subsequent ten years.
“I’m 37 years old. I can tell you this, not that I can see if in the next decade. I am, I’m all politicked out,” he mentioned.