A former pardon attorney was taken aback Friday night after President Donald Trump announced he was freeing disgraced former Rep. George Santos (R-NY) from prison after the expelled congressman pleaded guilty to fraud.
Trump took to his Truth Social platform to announce he was commuting the seven-year prison sentence for Santos, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Trump said Santos would be released from prison immediately, citing what he described as harsh treatment and extended solitary confinement.
The move became the topic of discussion Friday night among legal analysts on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," with former Justice Department pardon attorney Liz Oyer saying Santos' victims may never see repayment.
"We'll have to see the exact paperwork, but in most of Trump’s commutations thus far, he has forgiven all of the money portion of the sentence, so the folks who've gotten commutations to date do not have to pay back any of the money that they owed to the victims of their frauds," she said.
"What Donald Trump has done here is really extraordinary," Oyer added.
Trump has not followed any process for granting pardons and commutations, she said.
"He is granting them as he sees fit, sort of off the cuff, whenever he wants to. And he's bypassing the traditional process for review and vetting of pardon applicants, which would include consulting with the victims to see if they have an objection to a pardon, which they very well might in this case," she added.
Oyer said doing such a move typically involves consulting with the U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case. Santos' case was prosecuted and sentenced under Trump's own Justice Department, she noted.
"A press release that was issued back in July or May, when he was sentenced, was touting this as a really excellent result for the justice system, where a public official is finally going to be held accountable for a serious crime. And that was issued by an interim U.S. attorney appointed by Donald Trump. So it's pretty extraordinary to see this about-face that has happened," she concluded.
