WASHINGTON — Disgraced former Rep. George Santos is set to report to prison on Friday, beginning a more than seven-year sentence after pleading guilty to a laundry list of federal charges that included wire fraud, identity theft and money laundering.
The flamboyant New York Republican, who stormed onto the national stage when he unexpectedly won a congressional seat in 2022 and was expelled by his colleagues the very next year, didn’t go quietly this week. He appeared on an hour-long podcast, engaged with his followers on X Spaces and posted a series of farewell tweets on X. He also continued to post videos for supporters on the Cameo platform through Friday morning, charging a minimum of $300 per video, according to the site.
“Well, darlings …The curtain falls, the spotlight dims, and the rhinestones are packed. From the halls of Congress to the chaos of cable news what a ride it’s been! Was it messy? Always. Glamorous? Occasionally. Honest? I tried… most days,” Santos wrote on X.
“I may be leaving the stage (for now), but trust me legends never truly exit,” he continued.
In his hour-and-a-half Spaces live broadcast, Santos, a Donald Trump ally in Congress, said he’s been asked by many people whether he will get a presidential pardon or commutation that could cut short his 87-month sentence.
“The answer to that is, I don’t know. You’re asking the wrong person,” he said on Thursday. “The only person that can answer that question is, you know, whoever the president of the United States is — in this case, President Donald Trump.”
The White House has not commented on the matter.
Santos’ political career was one of the shortest and most tumultuous in recent memory. Even before he was sworn into office, the New York Times and other outlets revealed that he had fabricated parts of his resume, and the personal narrative that he shared with donors and voters on the campaign trail began to fall apart.
The House Ethics Committee issued a scathing investigative report about Santos, finding he’d likely committed multiple federal crimes, and the Justice Department indicted him on 23 counts, including embezzling contributions from supporters, illegally obtaining unemployment benefits and lying on House financial disclosures.
In the 2022 midterm elections, Santos had been one of four Republicans who had flipped Democratic-held seats in New York. But after the indictment and Ethics report, it was those same New York GOP colleagues who led the charge to oust him from Congress.
On Dec. 1, 2023, the House voted 311-114 to expel Santos, making him just the sixth person in U.S. history to be expelled from the House of Representatives.
After his guilty plea, Santos was sentenced to 87 months behind bars this past April and ordered to pay almost $374,000 in restitution and over $200,000 in forfeiture.
During his appearances this week, Santos repeatedly expressed remorse for his lies and actions, even as he tried to settle political scores with those who ousted him from Congress.
“I think we can all attest that I’ve made a string of s— choices in my life, and for that, I’m sorry to those I’ve disappointed, to those I’ve let down, to those that I have caused irreparable damage. I’m sorry. I mean it. I’m not— I’m not placating. This isn’t for show,” Santos said on Spaces.
“It’s just, life sucks sometimes and life-ing is hard,” he said.
