CENTRAL ISLIP, New York — A federal decide on Friday sentenced disgraced former Rep. George Santos to greater than seven years in jail for wire fraud and aggravated identification theft in a case that resulted in his expulsion from Congress and capped a colourful flameout for the first-term Republican.
The 87-month sentence for Santos, who wept because it was introduced, comes after a memorable one-year stint in Congress through which he was uncovered, in prosecutors’ phrases, as a “pathological liar and fraudster.”
In imposing the prolonged sentence, U.S. District Choose Joanna Seybert decried his “flagrant thievery,” describing him as “an conceited fraudster speaking out of either side of his mouth.”
His voice shaking, Santos advised the courtroom, “I betrayed the boldness entrusted to me by constituents, donors, colleagues and this courtroom.”
He should report back to jail by July 25. Seybert additionally ordered him to pay greater than $373K in restitution, due instantly, and to serve two years supervised launch.
Santos’ political saga gripped Washington and New York, the place he flipped a Lengthy Island Home seat in a little-watched 2022 race that led to his distinguished rise and supreme downfall. After prosecutors charged him in Might 2023, he refused to resign, buoyed by the assist of many Home Republicans. That assist finally dwindled, nonetheless, and Santos turned the primary member for the reason that Civil Battle to be booted from the Home with no conviction.
In August 2024, he pleaded responsible to 2 felony prices and acknowledged he used his marketing campaign fundraising equipment for private acquire. He admitted to submitting false experiences to the FEC throughout his congressional run and to stealing the non-public identification and monetary data of aged and cognitively impaired marketing campaign donors. He fraudulently charged their bank cards, making unauthorized contributions to his marketing campaign and others.
He additionally admitted to persuading donors to contribute cash to an organization that he claimed was a social welfare group or tremendous PAC, when in reality he used their contributions to place himself up on the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas, store at Hermès, Louis Vuitton and Brooks Brothers, repay his bank cards and present himself 1000’s of {dollars} in money.
In his responsible plea, Santos additionally acknowledged fraudulently acquiring unemployment advantages throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. In courtroom on Friday, New York state Division of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon delivered a sufferer impression assertion, saying Santos’ “felony actions show a callous disregard for his constituents and fellow residents.”
“His marketing campaign for Congress didn’t flip him right into a fraudster,” prosecutor Ryan Harris advised the decide. “It merely revealed him for what he already was.”
The felony investigation and a separate congressional inquiry, coupled with vital media protection, revealed that Santos had promoted scores of lies about his instructional {and professional} background, in addition to quite a few different falsehoods, together with that his mom died within the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist assaults.
The Home of Representatives voted to expel Santos in 2023 after the ethics committee launched an explosive report that discovered “vital proof” of Santos’ felony wrongdoing. Democrats final 12 months gained again his Lengthy Island seat in a particular election.
“From his creation of a completely fictitious biography to his callous theft of cash from aged and impaired donors, Santos’s unrestrained greed and voracious urge for food for fame enabled him to use the very system by which we choose our representatives,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo.
They’d advisable he obtain an 87-month sentence, largely as a result of, they argued, he wasn’t remorseful. The truth is, after prosecutors submitted their sentencing memo, they supplied an additional filing to the courtroom highlighting Santos’ social media posts to show that he stays “unrepentant.”
In a single submit, he referred to himself as a “scapegoat,” and in one other, he denied having used marketing campaign contributions to buy at Hermès. “Regardless of how onerous the DOJ comes for me,” he wrote in one other submit, “they’re mad as a result of they are going to NEVER break my spirit.”
In a letter to the court, Santos argued that he’s “profoundly sorry for the felony conduct to which I pled responsible,” however that he had the correct to “protest” the Justice Division’s request for the prolonged sentence. Santos himself suggested he serve two years, the authorized minimal for one of many counts to which he pleaded responsible.
Within the first jiffy of Friday’s sentencing, the decide took purpose at each Santos’ criticism of the Justice Division, calling the case “hardly a vindictive authorities prosecution” and his plea for the lightest sentence out there, telling him curtly, “that’s not going to be potential.”
