Disgraced former congressman George Santos was sentenced to 7 years in prison for wire fraud and identity theft on Friday.
Standing before Judge Joanna Seybert in federal court, Santos, 36, appeared in his well-known outfit: a V-neck sweater fashioned over a white button-down and tie, complete with a suit jacket. But instead of entering the House of Representatives or filming a video for social media, this time, he heard his punishment for engaging in a scheme that defrauded voters.
“Where’s the remorse? Where do I see it?” Seybert asked Santos before sentencing him to 87 months in prison.
Santos, who lied about his family history, job experience and life, pleaded guilty to defrauding voters and identity fraud to fund his congressional campaign in August. He also admitted to committing wire fraud, stealing credit card information and lying to the Federal Election Commission.
Despite admitting the crimes, Santos has spent the last few months lashing out at federal prosecutors on social media and denying wrongdoing. He’s claimed the Justice Department was trying to “break” him.
Federal prosecutors had asked Seybert to sentence Santos to approximately 7 years in prison, labelling him as “unrepentant for his crimes” due to his “insatiable appetite for ‘likes’” on social media.
They called Santos’s refusal to admit wrongdoing a“bizarre missive portraying himself as a victim of prosecutorial overreach and selective prosecution.”
Meanwhile, Santos’s lawyers had asked Seybert to sentence him to only two years in prison, the minimum federal sentence. They argued that his crimes were not committed with “inherent malice” but rather out of “misguided desperation” for his political campaign.
After bursting onto the political scene, winning a Republican seat in the House representing New York’s 3rd district, Santos conjured a spotlight that ultimately became his downfall.
Soon after taking office, reports emerged that Santos had fabricated information on his resume, claiming he worked for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs despite no evidence that he worked at either company. There was also no evidence that Santos attended Baruch College, from which he said he received a diploma.
Reports of lies began piling on top of each other, painting Santos as deceitful.
Among the stranger fabrications, Santos claimed his mother survived the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks – although immigration documents indicate she wasn’t even in the United States at the time.
After photos emerged of Santos performing as a drag queen, he denied ever having done drag, claiming he “had fun at a festival.”
Santos, who misrepresented himself as being Jewish, was forced to correct himself as being “Jew-ish” because his mother’s family had some Jewish background. The former congressman also claimed his grandparents survived the Holocaust, but did not provide evidence to support that.
He also claimed to run a pet-rescue charity called Friends of Pets United and solicited money for it, including $3,000 that was supposed to go to a veteran’s dog’s life-saving surgery.
Through it all, Santos claimed innocence.
In 2023, Santos was charged with 23 felony counts for what prosecutors said were three schemes to pocket money from political donors and government assistance programs to fund his lavish lifestyle. The former congressman initially pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
Santos managed to cling to power until December 2023, when his colleagues ousted him from the House of Representatives following a report from the House Ethics Committee, which found Santos had defrauded donors and used money to buy designer goods.
The absurdity of Santos’s rise to political fame landed him a gig as a social media star.
Santos has since leaned into his reputation, launching a career making Cameos for fans willing to pay money for a personalized video and a podcast called “Pants on Fire.” Part of it has been done to assist Santos in paying his $580,000 in penalties, including restitution.
Through it all, Santos has maintained his confident composure, occasionally winking to the camera but never going as far as to genuinely admit he’s wrong.
