Former U.S. Rep. George Santos was sentenced to 87 months, or more than seven years, in prison on federal wire fraud and identity theft charges Friday in New York.
CBS News reached Santos by phone as he was driving to court Friday morning, and he said he was resigned to the fact the judge could impose a stiff sentence. He said he had no expectations about the judge’s decision or when he will have to report to prison.
Federal prosecutors say the former congressman exaggerated or fabricated large parts of his backstory to defraud voters and donors in New York’s 3rd Congressional District. He faced nearly a dozen criminal charges and pleaded guilty to two counts last August.
In a sentencing document filed earlier this month, prosecutors said he “made a mockery of our election system,” adding he didn’t just pad his resume, he used “a wholly fictitious biography to enrich himself and capture one of the highest offices.”
Sentencing began at 10:30 a.m. in Central Islip, and the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York is expected to announce the decision outside the courthouse.
Santos asks for leniency ahead of sentencing
The U.S. Department of Justice wanted Santos to serve 87 months in prison, while his lawyers sought just 24 months.
In a recent filing, the DOJ said he remains “unrepentant for his crimes” and pointed to various social media posts it said are “hardly an expression of ‘genuine remorse.'”
Santos wrote to the judge earlier this week asking for leniency and saying he accepts responsibility.
“This case has cost me my congressional seat, my reputation, my livelihood, and, most painful of all, the confidence of people who believed in me. Every sunrise since that plea has carried the same realization: I did this, me. I am responsible,” Santos wrote. “But saying I’m sorry doesn’t require me to sit quietly while these prosecutors try to drop an anvil on my head.”
He previously told his followers he plans to request solitary confinement in prison.
Santos was part of “red wave” for Republican party
Santos helped Republicans secure the House of Representatives in the 2022 midterm elections, representing New York’s 3rd Congressional District which covers parts of Queens and Nassau County.
Before he was even sworn into office, his lies started to untangle.
Federal investigators filed the first charges against Santos in May 2023, followed by additional charges that October. The House Ethics Committee released a scathing 56-page report the following month, detailing the scope of his misconduct.
Santos was ousted from Congress weeks later, becoming just the sixth House member to be expelled in U.S. history.
What did George Santos do?
The sentencing memo from earlier this month outlined the details of his crimes. Prosecutors said he presented false financial disclosures to Congress claiming he was a multi-millionaire and solicited a vendor to forge a Baruch College diploma.
Prosecutors wrote these were “intentional and bald-faced lies” of a “professional fraudster” — “a fictitious public image of a highly educated, independently wealthy businessman.”
The memo referenced fake donations in the names of relatives, a credit card fraud scheme that stole from elderly and cognitively impaired donors to buy designer goods, and another that created a fake nonprofit to solicit donations.
It also said Santos claimed he loaned his campaign $500,000 when he had less than $10,000 to his name, and that he collected unemployment benefits while working for a firm that was later exposed as a Ponzi scheme.
As part of his plea deal, he agreed to pay more than $575,000 in restitution and forfeiture.
By CBS News
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