George Santos to serve more time in prison than he did Congress
Former GOP Rep. George Santos of New York—whose exaggerations about his professional and academic background ultimately led to his indictment on 23 counts of fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds, and more—was sentenced to more than 7 years in prison Friday.
“Mr. Santos, words have consequences. You got elected with your words, most of which were lies,” Judge Joanna Seybert said as she handed down his sentence.
Santos, who was expelled from Congress in December 2023, lied about everything from being the child of a Holocaust survivor to playing volleyball in college. The uncovering of his lies led to an investigation into other behaviors, revealing that he spent campaign funds on Botox, designer clothing, and OnlyFans subscriptions.
“Representative Santos sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit. He blatantly stole from his campaign. He deceived donors into providing what they thought were contributions to his campaign but were in fact payments for his personal benefit,” the House Ethics Committee wrote in a report at the time of his expulsion.
Santos was initially going to fight the charges but ultimately pleaded guilty in August to wire fraud and identity theft.
Federal prosecutors requested that Santos be sentenced to 87 months in prison, citing that his “conduct has made a mockery of our election system” and that a harsh sentence was necessary because of the “breadth, scope, and predatory nature” of his crimes.
Santos claims that he won’t seek a pardon from President Donald Trump, but even those who once were close to Santos don’t believe that.
“I wouldn’t trust a word out of his mouth,” Peter Hamilton, a former friend of Santos, told The New York Times.
Trump is reportedly not expected to pardon Santos, but he has pardoned unrepentant criminals who’ve praised him, including as recently as Thursday when he pardoned a former Republican lawmaker of Nevada who stole charity funds meant for a slain police officer to pay for her own plastic surgery and rent.
So all it might take is some ass-kissing for Santos to walk free.