Former Republican congressman and convicted conman George Santos is begging Donald Trump to free him from what he describes as the torturous conditions he is facing in prison, according to a dispatch he wrote for a local Long Island, New York newspaper.
In his piece for The South Shore Press, Santos makes his plea to Trump directly: “Intervene. Help me escape this daily torment and let me return to my family. I am a son, a sibling, a partner, a man whose life matters to those who love him. If there is any decency left in the offices that oversee places like FCI Fairton, let that decency move now.”
Santos is two months into a seven year prison sentence for wire fraud and identity theft at the Federal Correction Institution (FCI) in Fairton, New Jersey.
Santos says he was moved to the FCI’s Special Housing Unit (essentially, solitary confinement) on August 28 after a threat was made on his life. He alleges that officers at the facility neglected to bring him his inhaler for 30 hours and that he has been denied phone calls, emails, and visits from family members.
After The South Shore Press published Santos’ column, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene took to champion his cause on X and alleged some additional abuses her former colleague supposedly faces in prison.
“I’m told he is in his cell 24 hours per day and he is only allowed to get a shower 3 times a week,” she wrote. “He does not get any sunlight. He’s only allowed to buy stamps from the commissary and is drinking water from the sink. This is torture.”
Her tweet includes a letter she appears to have received from Santos showing a map of a 6’ by 9′ cell. 6’ by 9′ is generally the size of a solitary confinement cell in American prisons.
Santos, 37, has been detailing life behind bars for The South Shore Press for several weeks. In previous columns, he has labeled life at FCI Fairton as “hell on earth,” and complained how he feels like his dignity is being stripped away in prison.
He has grown increasingly dramatic about the state of the facility and his health. For example, in his third column, Santos, who suffers from asthma, claimed “breathing becomes a daily struggle.” The former congressman also wrote, “The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America states clearly that ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ is forbidden.”