Former New York Republican Rep. George Santos, who was accused of falsifying much of his life story to dupe donors and the government, was sentenced Friday to more than seven years in prison on wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges related to his 2022 midterm campaign.
Santos, who has been given until July 25 to report to prison, sobbed as U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert handed down the 87-month sentence. She also ordered him to pay more than $373,000 in restitution and serve two years of probation.
“I offer my deepest apologies,” Santos said. “I cannot rewrite the past, but I can control the road ahead.”
He also told the court that he had “betrayed the confidence entrusted to me by constituents, donors, colleagues, and this court.”
Seybert, who described Santos as “an arrogant fraudster talking out of both sides of his mouth,” wasn’t swayed. “Mr. Santos, words have consequences,” she said. “You got elected with your words, most of which were lies.”
She added Santos had shown no true contrition for his actions.
“Where’s the remorse? Where do I see it?” she asked, before adding that it seemed Santos always tried to blame others for his actions.
John J. Durham, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said after the sentence:
“From the moment he declared his candidacy for Congress, Santos leveraged his campaign for his own enrichment and financial benefit.
“He did this by targeting specific supporters and constituents. He saw them as easy marks and he made them victims of his fraud. Santos’s victims were real people and they suffered real losses. He went so far as to seek out elderly people who suffered from cognitive impairment and dementia. Santos’s blatant corruption is an affront to our electoral process, our representative government, and the people of New York’s Third Congressional District. But today, finally, Santos has been held accountable for his years of fraud, deceit and theft. He’s going to federal prison and he’s going to be punished for his staggering fraud.”
Just weeks before Santos was to stand trial last year, he pleaded guilty to wire fraud, identity theft, and a host of other crimes, including embezzling funds from his backers and fraudulently collecting unemployment.
Under the law, Santos was required to serve at least two years in prison, the minimum allowed for aggravated identity theft, followed by probation, but prosecutors sought 87 months. Prosecutors got their wish.
They argued in an April 17 letter to Seybert that Santos remained “unrepentant” and had not shown true remorse.
They cited a series of social media posts in which he referred to the Department of Justice as a “cabal of pedophiles” and painted himself as the victim of prosecutorial overreach.
In an April 5 X post, Santos claimed, “The DOJ gets to step on my neck in T-20 days!”
Two days later, he posted a picture of himself on X and wrote: “Category is: Scapegoat!” followed by a peace sign emoji.
Santos defended his actions, writing, “Every sunrise since that plea has carried the same realization: I did this, me. I am responsible. But saying I’m sorry doesn’t require me to sit quietly while these prosecutors try to drop an anvil on my head.”
Friday’s sentencing caps a dramatic rise and fall for the 36-year-old Republican whose tall tales became more outrageous as time went on.
Soon after Santos won his bid for Congress, reports emerged that he lied about his work history, finances, family, background, and education. Santos had claimed he was a star volleyball player in college, that his mother was at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, and that he founded a charity that rescued thousands of cats and dogs.
Despite revelations he was a serial liar, Santos was sworn into Congress in January 2023.
In May of that year, federal prosecutors charged him with money laundering, fraud, and stealing public funds. At the time, Santos proclaimed his innocence and refused to resign from office despite a growing group of lawmakers demanding his exit. Months later, prosecutors slapped him with new charges, claiming he had stolen people’s identities and inflated fundraising numbers to qualify for a program that supported GOP candidates.
In November 2023, the House Ethics Committee announced it had uncovered evidence that Santos stole money from his own campaign and used it to buy Botox, go on shopping sprees at Sephora and Hermes, and pay for OnlyFans subscriptions. Santos, still unwilling to admit guilt, called the bipartisan Ethics Committee report a “politicized smear.”
His lies caught up with him the following month when the House voted to expel him, making Santos the sixth member to be kicked out of the lower chamber. The resolution passed 311 to 114, with 105 Republicans joining a majority of Democrats to oust him.
When the vote was over, Santos told reporters that lawmakers “just set a new dangerous precedent for themselves.”
He added, “To hell with this place.”
Following his epic fall, Santos has tried to monetize his infamy, offering up personalized videos on Cameo. On Wednesday, he urged fans to book quickly and announced it would be his “last day” of recording videos on Cameo “for an undetermined amount of time.”
He also started a podcast in December called Pants on Fire. His guests included Joe Exotic, the “Tiger King,” as well as members of Santos’s criminal defense team.
PRESIDENT PARDONS ‘LADY TRUMP’ MICHELE FIORE WHO FACED CENTURY OF JAIL TIME OVER FRAUD CONVICTION
In an interview with the New York Times, Santos, an ardent supporter of President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Attorney General Pam Bondi, claimed he would not seek a pardon.
However, on his podcast, he told guest Perez Hilton, “You bet your sweet ass I would.”
