Fox News host Sean Hannity pressed former congressman George Santos on Monday to repay the hundreds of thousands of dollars he owes to defrauded donors, warning that his explanations about the “technicalities” of who was owed sounded like “obfuscation.” The exchange came just days after President Donald Trump commuted Santos’s 87-month federal sentence, freeing him after only three months in prison and erasing his $373,750 restitution order.
The 37-year-old former New York lawmaker, expelled from Congress in 2023 after admitting to wire fraud and identity theft, appeared on “Hannity” in his first major television interview since his release from federal custody at FCI Fairton in New Jersey.
Trump’s commutation cleared Santos of his financial obligations to those he defrauded, but Hannity pressed him to repay the money voluntarily.
“So, I have a question that no one has asked you,” Hannity said. “You don’t have to pay back anything. It was an amount of restitution for victims of over $373,000. There was another incident where you had repeatedly charged contributions of credit cards without people’s authorization. Two donors transferred money to a liability company. These are things that you pled guilty to.”
Then came Hannity’s challenge: “Even though you’re not compelled with this commutation to pay it back, you think you should?”
Santos, reflective but cautious, replied, “You know, Sean, I’ve put a lot of thought into that and I’ve spoken to my legal team. I think that the right thing to do is to explore a way to make it right. Part of actually squaring away with everything that has happened in my life is to start fresh, and starting fresh, if it means we find a way to do it, sure.”
He went on to explain that part of the restitution would have gone to the National Republican Congressional Committee, citing Justice Department findings that the committee had contributed to his campaign “under false pretenses.” Santos emphasized that he was not “obfuscating or deflecting,” but working through the details. “It’s been four days and we have a lot to process,” he said. “Like I said, it’s about doing what is right. It’s about moving forward. It’s about changing the ending of my life because I can’t go back and change the beginning, but President Trump gave me an opportunity to change the end.”
Hannity, who identified himself as a past constituent of Santos’s, accepted his apology to “the American people” but did not let him off easily. “You charged money without people’s knowledge directly to their credit card and spent it for your own personal gain,” he reminded the former congressman. “That money came from people.”
Hannity urged Santos to take accountability as a matter of faith: “If you really are serious about the God thing, I think you really—you have to go there, to me. That would be the important first step.”
Santos acknowledged the point. “You’re not wrong,” he told Hannity. “It is the right thing to do, and it’s definitely the Godly thing to do. I will do the best I can in my best efforts to find a way to do it.”
He added, “The only road to redemption will be if I show—and my actions show—that I really am turning a leaf.”
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