Disgraced former U.S. Congress member George Santos, who lied about his life story and defrauded donors, was sentenced Friday to over seven years in jail, sobbing as he heard his punishment.
Santos, who pleaded responsible final summer time to federal wire fraud and aggravated identification theft, appealed for mercy, telling a court docket by tears that he was “humbled” and “chastised” and realized he had betrayed his constituents’ belief.
“I supply my deepest apologies,” he stated, including: “I can not rewrite the previous, however I can management the street forward.”
U.S. District Courtroom Decide Joanna Seybert evidently wasn’t satisfied. “The place is your regret? The place do I see it?” she requested as she sentenced him to 87 months behind bars. She stated the previous politician appeared to really feel that “it is all the time another person’s fault.”
The New York Republican served in Congress lower than a yr earlier than his Home of Representatives colleagues ousted him in 2023. He admitted to deceiving donors and stealing the identities of practically a dozen individuals, together with his relations, to fund his successful marketing campaign.
As a part of a plea deal, Santos has agreed to pay roughly $580,000 US in penalties along with jail time.
The 36-year-old did not reply to reporters’ shouted questions as he walked right into a Lengthy Island courthouse, however he instructed The Related Press on Thursday that he was resigned to his destiny.
“I am doing in addition to any human being can be doing given the circumstances,” Santos wrote in a textual content message on Thursday, including that he was “able to face the music.”
Promotes Cameo account in closing hours of freedom
Prosecutors argued in latest court docket filings that he “stays unrepentant” and has not proven real regret, regardless of what he claims. They cited latest feedback Santos made on social media through which he forged himself as a sufferer of prosecutorial overreach.
Santos’s legal professionals had referred to as for a two-year jail stint, which is the necessary minimal sentence for aggravated identification theft. They argued such a penalty was corresponding to sentences handed to different political figures convicted of comparable monetary crimes.
Santos was elected in 2022, flipping a rich district representing components of Queens and Lengthy Island from Democratic management.
George Santos has been expelled from the US Home of Representatives after a sequence of prison expenses and ethics investigations. He’s solely the sixth individual ever to be ousted from the chamber.
Quickly after, it was revealed that the political unknown had fabricated a lot of his life story, portray himself as a profitable enterprise proprietor who labored at prestigious Wall Road companies and held a priceless actual property portfolio.
In actuality, Santos was struggling financially and even confronted eviction.
The revelations led to congressional and prison inquiries into how he had funded his marketing campaign.
Santos made a number of social media posts on Thursday, together with one closing plug for his Cameo account, the place he information customized video messages for $100 US.
“Assume forward and of any celebration or occasion developing later this yr. E book them immediately,” Santos wrote, ending the submit with a sequence of coronary heart emojis.
Source link