Trump-pardoned felon eagerly offers to fill White House press vacancy

George Santos departs after the sentencing in his criminal corruption charges at the Central Islip Federal Courthouse in Central Islip, New York, April 25, 2025. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Months after President Donald Trump commuted the sentence of convicted GOP lawmaker George Santos, Santos is angling for Trump’s PR position, reports The Hill.

Santos pitched himself on Friday to fill the vacancy abruptly abandoned by White House press secretary Katie Zacharia, despite Santos pleading guilty to two felony counts of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in 2024.

“Hey I’m not technically open for a job because I have one already…. butttttttt… I’d jump to serve POTUS as press secretary in a heartbeat. Just saying,” the former Republican lawmaker wrote on the social platform X.

His pitch on X drew a myriad of responses. Many critics on X warned Santos that he would probably break Zacharia’s record for shortest Trump administration employment since former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci. Others, including many Democratic operatives and liberal allies, beckoned him to officially pursue the plan, and they hoped he got it.

Continuing his pattern of pardoning allies, Trump commuted the prison term of Santos in 2025. At the time he was less than three months into a seven-year sentence for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. In commuting his sentence, Trump also saved Santos from having to pay $370,000 in court-ordered restitution to victims of his fraud.

Trump’s commutation followed a series of high-profile acts of clemency. Most notorious among these was his blanket pardon of more than 1,500 people charged in connection with the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection, for which “the president — himself a 34-count convicted fraudster — was impeached for a historic second time,” wrote Common Dreams author Brett Wilkins.

“… [A]t least Santos had the Courage, Conviction, and Intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN!” Trump argued at the time, which prompted critics like Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) to call it “naked corruption.”

“Trump says it plainly: Crimes don’t count if you ‘vote Republican.’ Just like his pardons of those who violently attacked police,” Beyer wrote on social media at the time.

Zacharia, a right-wing commentator and one-time advisor linked to Truth Social, was out after a disastrous, widely mocked first and only press briefing in which she took few questions and struggled with public speaking basics. Falsely claiming to be a lawyer was another point against her.

The Hill reports Santos slammed Fox News host Sean Hannity after the anchor grilled Zacharia about her legal background during a Thursday interview, accusing Hannity of thinking “you are untouchable and like to sit high on your horse and judged people.”

Santos also asked people who watched Hannity’s show to “unfollow” his X account.

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