Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene had people raising their eyebrows after she called on President Donald Trump to pardon disgraced for GOP Representative George Santos, claiming he's being "tortured" in prison by being forced to drink water out of the sink and buy stamps from the commissary.
Santos—who since arriving on the political scene faced allegations of fabricating his background, misusing campaign funds for luxury items and Botox, and leaving a trail of victims behind him as a known fraud and identity thief—received a seven-year sentence for crimes that the U.S. attorney for the eastern district of New York argued “made a mockery” of the electoral process.
The sentence Santos received sits at the high end of the sentencing guidelines, combining roughly four to five years for fraud-related charges with a mandatory two-year minimum for aggravated identity theft.
Greene spoke out after Santos, in a letter to the South Short Press, said he was placed in solitary confinement after a right-wing group warned his lawyer that “people were plotting to kill me in prison.” He added that officials initially denied him his daily hour of outdoor time, a restriction that was lifted only after he filed a complaint.
A furious Greene said Santos "has been in solitary confinement for nearly 30 days" and said she had "sent a letter asking for his sentence to commuted":
"Former Congressman George Santos has been in solitary confinement for nearly 30 days in FCI Fairton NJ. They say it’s “for his safety” due to threats. I’m told he is in his cell 24 hours per day and he is only allowed to get a shower 3 times a week. He does not get any sunlight."
"He’s only allowed to buy stamps from the commissary and is drinking water from the sink. He is in the cell on the right marked 'after' and there are no windows. This is torture."
"I have sent a letter asking for his sentence to commuted, 87 months is way too long for the crimes he was sentenced for. There are criminals as we speak serving in Congress and many other former government officials that are criminals walking free that did far more heinous things than George Santos!!!"
"George Santos had a better voting record than MOST members of Congress!!! Including EVERYONE who voted to expel him!!! Honestly, George should be pardoned!!!"
You can see her post below.
While solitary confinement has for years been condemned by human rights groups as a form of torture, at no point did Greene mention that Santos told his followers in April that "no matter how long I go away I want and demand I be kept in solitary confinement for the entire duration."
The mockery was swift for both Greene and Santos.
Santos, who is held at the Federal Correctional Institution Fairton Satellite Camp (FCI Fairton) in New Jersey, previously complained that "no one on the outside ever thinks about what these places look like, let alone who’s inside" and that "society writes us off, labels us, forgets us.”
However, Santos has previously referred to police brutality as a "made-up concept" and asserted that only “woke socialists” would criticize law enforcement.