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Former Rep. George Santos (RN.Y.) was sentenced to seven years and three months on Friday, captivating Washington and bookends the scandal that took New York Republicans from the GOP’s Trail Blazer.
This sentence marks the latest developments in the drama surrounding a former lawmaker. He became the face of controversy after his background was exposed as a series of extreme lies before he won praise as the first openly gay Republican to win a seat as a nonprofit in 2022.
The storm surrounding Santos on Capitol Hill was ousted from the House in December 2023 by a bipartisan vote, becoming the sixth in history and being kicked out of the lower room.
As his political career was in a hurry, prosecutors charged Santos with 23 federal counts against several criminal plots. He made a transaction last summer, including pleading guilty of fraud and aggravating identity theft.
Federal law required US District Judge Joanna Sabert, the appointee of former President Clinton, who oversaw the case, to state Santos for at least two years, given the seriousness of the charges.
Santos’ lawyers argued that the punishment was sufficient given his regret, but the judge’s 87-month ruling coincides with the prosecutor’s recommendations.
As part of his plea agreement, Santos has granted the filing of a false campaign finance report, and charging the donor’s credit card without permission, and he has admitted to fraudulently receiving unemployment benefits, saying he is liable for the “lie I said.”
He also agreed to pay a nearly $374,000 in compensation and a forfeiture sentence of about $205,000 as part of the transaction.
At the heart of his sentence was whether Santos really felt he regretted. Prosecutors urged a longer sentence by pointing out recent social media posts attacking the Justice Department by asserting that he “left unrepentant.”
Santos pushed back a letter to the judge earlier this week, telling Sabert that he was committed to compensate for his crimes.
“But I don’t have to sit quietly while these prosecutors try to drop anvil on my head. True regret is not muted. It knows its own.
Santos’ ruling puts an end to his stunning rise at Capitol Hill. His election in 2022, which turned the red in the blue seat, was welcomed as a Republican bounty a few weeks later, before he took office, and reported that several parts of his biographies and resume had been manufactured.
From the moment he arrived at Capitol Hill, he was engrossed in the controversy and peaked in December 2023 with a historic vote to expel him from the room. A bipartisan group of lawmakers came together to help him expel him and overcome the two-thirds of the threshold required for exile.
The move echoed in Congress. Santos’ oustermination left House Republicans, who are already working on a thin razor majority, and voted vitally. Then, in February 2024, Rep. Tom Suzzi (DN.Y.) won a special election to replace Thanos, bringing the purple district back to democratic hands.
With a trial and ruling in the rearview mirror, Santos is now staring at downtime behind the bar.
“Isn’t that so? Of course you aren’t,” Santos told reporters when he asked if he was afraid of going to prison. “That’s why I made it very clear that I’m in my position, but of course everyone should be. These are serious allegations and I have a lot of work before me.”
This story was updated at 12:47pm
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