President Trump’s use of the pardon and commutation power on political allies renews speculation that he could provide some relief to convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, who has cooperated with both the Justice Department and Congressional reviews of the Jeffrey Epstein affair. On Friday, Mr. Trump freed Congressman George Santos from prison for having the “courage, conviction and intelligence” to be a member of the Republican Party.
Santos pleaded guilty last year to several charges, including wire fraud and identity theft, after he was expelled from Congress in an effort led by fellow Republicans. Trump released the former congressman from prison on Friday evening, where he was serving a seven-year sentence. Santos no longer has to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages to his victims.
“George Santos was somewhat of a ‘villain,’ but there are many villains in our country who were not 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 REPUBLIC!”
Santos himself said he was surprised when he heard the president had given him his freedom. He told CNN Sunday morning that his fellow inmates called him into a room Friday evening to show him a television news program reporting that his sentence had been commuted.
“I had no expectations. I wasn’t even aware of it until I heard it through the chyron of the mainstream media in prison,” Santos said.
Mr. Trump has long made a point of using his clemency powers to help friends and allies, though he has grown bolder in asserting those powers since President Biden pardoned his family members, Democratic Party allies and members of the Jan. 6 Committee shortly before leaving the White House in early 2025.
On his first day 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, the highest number of clemency grants by a president in the first year of his first term in history.
In 2017, Trump hardly used his clemency power; he granted only one pardon during the entire calendar year.
Many have been watching for months to see what Mr. Trump will do regarding Maxwell, who is now serving a 20-year sentence in a minimum-security prison in Texas to which she was transferred after meeting with a Justice Department attorney, Todd Blanche. The Supreme Court has refused to hear her appeal, exhausting all her options for relief before the judiciary.
Trump could give Maxwell an exit, though. She participated in the Justice Department’s review of the Epstein investigation and the way it was handled. That review of the Epstein affair is being led by Mr. Blanche, who previously served as Mr. Trump’s personal criminal defense attorney.
During her interview with Mr Blanche, Maxwell cleared Mr Trump of any possible implication of child sexual abuse. “I have never actually seen the president in a massage setting,” Maxwell reportedly told Justice Department officials.
“I have never seen the president in an inappropriate environment,” she added. “The president was not rude to anyone. During the time I was with him, he was a gentleman in every way.”
Mr. Trump has consistently refused to rule out a pardon or commutation for Maxwell. When she was first charged in 2019, the president wished her well and said he had met her “countless” times over the years.
At a press event with reporters on October 6, the president said he would consider granting clemency to Maxwell after the Supreme Court declined to hear her appeal.
“I haven’t heard the name in so long,” Trump said when asked about Maxwell. “I can say this – that I should take a look at it. I should take a look at it.”
“I’ll take a look. I’ll talk to the DOJ,” the president added. “I wouldn’t consider it or wouldn’t consider it [it]. I don’t know anything about it. I will talk to the DOJ.”
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