When George Santos walked out of prison after serving less than three months of his sentence, he took a remaining chunk of law enforcement credibility with him.
The expelled ex-congressman, whose 7-year sentence was commuted by President Trump, isn’t just a clownish liar who invented wild stories about himself. He is a scam artist who cost his victims plenty of money, and then pleaded guilty.
But there is a much larger question about the Trump Justice Department and whether vast sums being used to investigate his political enemies also includes the use of his pardon power to let favored crooks, mostly Republicans, off the legal hook.
On the offensive end, the president has ordered investigations of such political foes as James Comey and Letitia James – both of whom were indicted by a loyalist when the professional prosecutor was fired for insisting there was insufficient evidence – along with Adam Schiff and George Soros.
GEORGE SANTOS VOWS NOT TO ‘DISAPPOINT’ TRUMP AFTER SURPRISE RELEASE, SAYS HE FOUND GOD IN PRISON
On the defensive end, Trump already pardoned Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and Charles Kushner (Jared’s father) at the end of his first term. And pardoned the Jan. 6 rioters when he regained the White House.
In fairness, Joe Biden handed out lots of last-minute preemptive pardons to protect his allies from Trump, including, of course, his son Hunter.
But here’s the thing. DOJ spent many thousands of dollars investigating Santos, gathering evidence and bringing it before a grand jury.
President Trump commuted the prison sentence of disgraced former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y. (Theodore Parisienne/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The ex-lawmaker fraudulently claimed unemployment benefits.
He diverted money from his donors for personal expenses, charging $11,000 from one victim’s credit card for designer clothing from Hermes and Sephora, cosmetics, OnlyFans purchases and, not surprisingly, Botox. For him, Botox was probably the most important expense.
So the entire investigation was a waste of money, given the get-out-of-jail-free card he was handed at the end.