Disgraced former Rep. George Santos described his time in prison, writing suicide notes, a conversation with President Trump and more in a wide-ranging interview Tuesday.
Santos spoke with CBS News New York’s Marcia Kramer following the commutation of his sentence. He told her he found out his sentence had been commuted from fellow inmates who were watching television.
Santos told CBS News New York he wasn’t aware that he might still face legal jeopardy locally despite his federal sentence being commuted.
Santos’ apology
“First and foremost, I’m sorry. I owe so many people apologies. I owe my former constituents who I let down,” Santos said.
He also named Republican party leaders on Long Island and New York, saying he owes them apologies too.
“I betrayed their trust. I betrayed my former colleagues’ trust in the House of Representatives, both Republicans and Democrats, but most importantly I want to focus on my Republican colleagues because we’re one team. I betrayed their trust. I understand your fury. I am sorry I caused them so much grief and so much heartache,” Santos said. “I know talk is cheap. I just want everyone back home to know – please, judge me by the actions moving forward. I have been given an opportunity to rewrite the ending of my life, and I will make sure that is as honorable as humanly possible, and above reproach at all times, because it would be an absolute ungodly irresponsibility to not take advantage of this, and do it in the best way possible. I just want to do good.”
Santos on his time in prison
Santos said being in prison “wasn’t nice.”
He was sent to prison at Federal Correctional Institution Fairton in New Jersey. He critiqued prison officials for how his arrival was handled.
“The first night was tough. No one truly prepares for something like this,” Santos said. “Imagine a dorm at a camp you really don’t want to be at and it’s been run down so bad but your parents really force you because they want to get rid of you for the summer – it’s kind of the same.”
He went on to describe the tension he felt surrounding his arrival.
“From the get go, they did everything wrong, in my opinion, on how they dealt with bringing in a person into prison. Usually, people come in and nobody even knows there’s a new guy. But for me, they shut down the camp, they shut down the facility, they took people and put them all indoors, made them stand up for a count so I can walk in. Kicked people out of their beds and shifted people around so I can have this, I guess, privileged spot bed, as if there was a difference between any of the other beds. I guess they were just trying to be overzealous and protective in their nature, and they created an environment that could’ve become hostile if I didn’t have the personality to navigate it. But it was tough,” Santos said.
Santos said he spent 41 days in isolation due to death threats, in a cell that he says was fewer than six feet wide and nine feet high. He was kept in that cell 23 hours a day, with one hour of outdoor recreation time during weekdays. He said he stood outdoors in the rain just to stay out of that cell for that hour.
“It was mentally torturous,” Santos said.
Santos said he was given three books a week. He said he was allowed to shower three times a week.
“It’s a really dirty environment,” Santos said.
CBS News New York has reached out to FCI Fairton for a response to Santos’ claims.
Santos says he wrote suicide notes
He said he wrote three suicide notes.
“I wanted to document my feelings in case I felt short and weak and did it,” Santos said. “Three different times. I wrote three different letters.”
Santos said he considered hanging himself in his cell, and prayer helped him survive.
“I decided not to do it all three times … I want to say God intervened every time. And I stuck to that,” Santos said.
On his commutation
Santos said he found out about his commutation from other prisoners who were watching television.
“The inmates found out and started screaming for me to come,” Santos said.
He said he left prison six hours later.
“My husband spoke to the president before I did,” Santos said.
Santos said he gave his prison clothes to fellow prisoners who needed it the most.
“I just walked out with my letters, my bible, my rosary and pictures that I had from my family,” Santos said. “I received hundreds of letters from people all around the country wishing me well. America is a place for second chances. Everybody in this country is programmed to allow and give grace. That’s our culture, as Americans, and I saw that in how people would send me the kindest letters.”
Santos said his commutation by the president left him “humbled.”
“It’s not about what I think, it’s about what President Trump thinks as he did, and I am humbled and grateful for it,” Santos said.
Santos pointed out President Biden pardoned his whole family, along with Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Santos said he “fell apart” when he saw his husband and sister when he left prison.
“There’s nothing to say, other than cry,” Santos said. “In my wildest dreams, I didn’t think I’d spend the holidays at home with them.”
He says the first thing he did when he got home was take a long shower. His first meal outside of prison was sushi – he wanted something really fresh.
On his conversation with President Trump
Santos said he spoke with President Trump Saturday. So what did he tell him?
“I want to contribute,” Santos said. “I want to make a difference. I want to work from the outside. I think that’s how important this is, especially for our youth. That’s the main focus, because that’s the root cause.”
Santos said cities like Chicago and Detroit, the main opportunities for many young people are in crime.
“That’s where we have to target, is working with these children so that they don’t go to prison,” Santos said. “You don’t want to go to prison, kids. That’s the message.”
Santos said his call with President Trump was meaningful.
“This was my first one-on-one with any president,” Santos said. “Any sitting president of the United States, it would’ve been an honor. But to have the one that I’ve dedicated 10 years of supporting made it that much more special.”
On potential future legal challenges
Under a 2019 law inspired by Paul Manafort, New York state and local prosecutors can still bring charges against people who have received commutations from the president. So does Santos think he’s out of the woods?
“It hasn’t crossed my mind. Like I said, I have no pendencies with them … my entire case was federal. Not that I’m aware of, I don’t even know how’d they would do it,” Santos said. “I mean, you’re putting that thought in my head now, so I probably have to go look into it, but I would hope that that’s not the priority, the path that people would want to go down.”
Nassau County DA Anne Donnelly released a statement Tuesday indicating it’s a possibility.
“Since first learning of George Santos’ actions, I have been at the forefront of bringing him to justice. I am proud of the work my office has done, and the conviction achieved in partnership with the U.S. Attorney’s office. While the office cannot comment on ongoing investigations, suffice it to say that I remain focused on prosecuting political corruption wherever it exists regardless of political affiliation,” Donnelly said.
His reaction?
“I wasn’t even aware of the statement Marcia,” Santos said. “I would fall short of words.”
“Obviously, it raises concerns, for me,” he added.
Santos says he takes responsibility for his crimes, but…
“I believe I have made some very poor choices. I believe I have made some awful mistakes. I’ve hurt people. I don’t believe I should’ve been treated the way I was in prison. I don’t believe prison should be the way it is in our country,” Santos said. “I certainly, like many Americans in a bipartisan fashion, agree that my sentence and my entire process was over-politicized by a weaponized DOJ.”
Santos said former Attorney General Merrick Garland was “unhinged” and “trying to settle scores.”
Santos said he thinks he got a stiffer sentence because of the notoriety of his case.
“I believe the DOJ was specifically targeting me because I flipped a seat after almost 30 years of Democrat control, and they had a window because I gave them that window, because I was so self-destructive to myself, Marcia. So, that being said, it’s obviously my fault, it’s my own doing, but they were overzealous because of political expedience and convenience,” Santos said.
Santos says while he accepts responsibility for his crimes, people have a narrative about them that’s inaccurate.
“I’m going to be forever targeted and having to live with people believing that I went out there and stole people’s credit cards physically and used them on shopping sprees when that did not happen,” Santos said. “That never happened. It’s not a fact.”
Santos said he had “bad and very irresponsible accounting” on his campaign.
“There were things that money was spent on that was not allowed. I take all responsibility, Marcia, the buck stops with me. But there were multiple steps to how that all happened. And I am here standing, and I take responsibility, because I want to move forward. There’s no point in rehashing the past. That’s already been adjudicated, right? I was granted a second lease on life and I want to use that to do good. I know what I shouldn’t do. I have this insane experience that I just went through for 84 days, and I’m grateful for the clemency offered to me by President Trump, and I want to take that and use this opportunity to just do good,” Santos said.
Santos says he wants to work on prison reform
Santos said he wants work on prison reform and helping troubled youth.
“We’re not rehabilitating prisoners, hence our recidivism rate is through the roof,” Santos said. “We need to change the way we do prison in our country.”
Santos said he’s planning to talk to Bureau of Prisons officials about his experiences. Santos said however he would rather work with an existing prison reform organization than start one of his own.
“I don’t want the responsibility of managing finances. That is something I do not want,” Santos said. “I don’t want that scrutiny. I don’t want that responsibility. I want to do the work without having to take on all the brunt, right? Lobbying is not something I want to do, but I would love to do advocacy, which is two very different things.”
“The best platform is to partner with a productive and effective organization, which I have a list of some that I’m already interested in. I’m speaking to two of them this week,” Santos added.
He said he wants to reduce the prison population not by letting people out but by “truly rehabilitating them and reducing this obsession of sending people to prison for long periods of time when you can put them on house arrest, community service, fine them if they’re wealthy people.”
Santos said there’s a difference between white collar and violent criminals, and made clear he is not advocating for house arrest for violent prisoners.
“But I am advocating that that person is treated with dignity, and that they are given an opportunity for programs to better themselves, to have true rehabilitation with mental health programs and actually staffing an adequate amount of real medical professionals in prisons, not faux medical professionals, like I experienced,” Santos said.
On his ability to earn a living
Santos said he still works as a columnist and he has “other endeavors of business that I am engaged in that yield me income.”
A big lesson he learned?
“Wealth is not material. Wealth is your family,” Santos said. “That is the biggest lesson. I can forgo every jewelry, watch, you name it, name brand clothes and luxury that I have so long as I can have my family and they’re healthy.”
Santos said he has no plans to seek office “in the near future.”
“Not now,” he said.
