A look at South Florida links of ex-Rep. George Santos, whose sentence was commuted by Trump

President Donald Trump commuted the sentence of former Rep. George Santos, who has Florida connections, on Friday afternoon.

“I just signed a Commutation, releasing George Santos from prison, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

Santos received a seven-year prison sentence after admitting to identity theft and wire fraud.

He was also entangled in a fraudulent political-contribution scheme that involved multiple companies. One company was Harbor City Capital, a defunct investment firm that the Securities and Exchange Commission said ran a “classic Ponzi scheme.” At the time, Santos was the New York firm’s regional VP.

Campaign-finance reports show Santos spent a great deal of time in South Florida from 2021 to 2022. During that period, Santos stayed at West Palm Beach hotels and attended events at Trump’s Mar-A-Lago resort in Palm Beach.

At one point, Santos’ stay at the W South Beach — where a room usually costs $700 a night — was recorded as costing $199.99, one cent below the threshold requiring receipts be kept by a political campaign.

The Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit, flagged the stay in a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission. The FEC concluded that the difference in price was likely a result of an inappropriate documentation of campaign funds.

But that wasn’t all for Santos. In 2022, he received campaign funding from Miami Beach residents Leila and David Centner. The Centners founded a Miami school, the Centner Academy, where teachers were recommended not to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

After he was elected in 2022, many of his claims about his background were revealed to have been false. On Dec. 1, 2023, Santos was the sixth member in history to be expelled from the House of Representatives.