Former Representative George Santos of New York, the disgraced Republican fabulist whose lies made him an object of national scorn, was released from a federal prison on Friday night after President Trump commuted his seven-year sentence for fraud.

His lawyer, Joseph Murray, said that Santos was released from the Federal Correctional Institution Fairton in New Jersey after 10pm on Friday night. "A great injustice has been corrected," Murray said.

In a social media post, Trump suggested that politics had been a major factor in his decision, commending Santos for sharing his views and contrasting him with Democrats. Calling the former congressman "somewhat of a rogue", Trump said that he believed that Santos's sentence was excessive given the nature of his financial crimes.

The President also suggested he had been moved by Santos's accounts of being in prison, which he had published in a regular column in a local Long Island newspaper.

New York Times News Service