A glance at the George Santos case might suggest merely that the most flagrant liar in American politics simply couldn’t bear to see a fellow fabulist languish in prison.

But there’s a deeper, costlier moral rot in Donald Trump’s decision to commute Santos’ sentence after less than three months of a seven-year term.

It’s of a pattern.

The President of the United States doesn’t believe in punishing financial crimes unless he can allege them against political foes like Letitia James, New York’s attorney general.

Victimizing the public

Trump’s pardons and commutations don’t just open cell doors or erase convictions. They’re costly to the public and to countless victims because they also erase court-ordered fines and restitution. And they subvert the bedrock principle that the laws apply

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