Former Rep. George Santos has been sentenced to seven years in prison for identity theft and wire fraud, The Guardian reported. The disgraced New York Republican sobbed when his sentence was read and claimed he was "humbled."
The 36-year-old emerged as a pathological liar during his congressional campaign and in the only year he ever served. Last summer, he threw himself at the mercy of the Long Island court when he pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft and federal wire fraud.
"I offer my deepest apologies. I cannot rewrite the past, but I can control the road ahead," Santos said.
U.S. District Court Judge Joanna Seybert was unimpressed. "Where is your remorse? Where do I see it?" Seybert said. She chided Santos for demonstrating that he feels "it’s always someone else’s fault" when sentencing him to 87 months behind bars.
During proceedings, Santos admitted to stealing identities to funnel money to his campaign, including from his family members. The openly gay politician spent that money on the pornography site OnlyFans, Botox treatments, luxury vacations, and other high-ticket items.
Santos was a notorious liar, and prosecutors said his guilty plea was a rare instance of him telling the truth. "For what may seem like the first time since he started his campaign for Congress, Mr Santos told the truth about his criminal schemes," Breon Peace, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement.
"He admitted to lying, stealing, and conning people. By pleading guilty, Mr Santos has acknowledged that he repeatedly defrauded federal and state government institutions as well as his own family, supporters, and constituents," Peace added.
"His flagrant and disgraceful conduct has been exposed and will be punished. Mr Santos’s conviction demonstrates this office’s enduring commitment to rooting out corruption and grift by public officials," Peace said.
Santos took to social media to complain about his prosecution, saying he was a "scapegoat" that was being pursued by the "cabal of pedophiles" in the Department of Justice. Besides time in prison, Santos will pay $373,749.97 in restitution and forfeit $205,002.97.
It seems Santos was unable to tell the truth about anything in his public life. He lied about attending New York University. According to CNN, he claimed he was "half Jewish" and that he was a "Latino Jew" when speaking to the media.
He said that his grandparents became Catholic to escape the Nazi invasion in Belgium after already surviving Joseph Stalin's regime in the Soviet Union. Alternatively, he also claimed that his Ukrainian maternal grandfather emigrated to Brazil during the Nazi regime.
However, there was never any proof of any of this in the genealogy records, even his alleged Jewish heritage. Santos also claimed that his mother died "a few years after" 9/11, after surviving the attacks, ABC News reported.
Santos said that she "was in her office in the South Tower on September 11, 2001, when the horrific events of that day unfolded." Unfortunately for him, there are records show that show his mother wasn't even in New York at the time of the attacks.
Regardless of political party, Santos is a disgrace for his lies and crimes. Although some believe seven years is excessive, the sentencing is well within the bounds of the law for a man who so flagrantly commits such misdeeds.
