George Santos surrenders to New Jersey prison for 7-year sentence
Santos reported to the Federal Bureau of Prisons at the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, New Jersey.
The ex-Republican congressman from Long Island was sentenced in April to 87 months in prison and he was ordered to report by 2 p.m. on July 25. He was also ordered to pay $373,949.97 in fines and restitution.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons does not disclose where convicts will serve their sentences before they start. The bureau says locations are determined based on the level of supervision, medical or programming needs, security measures and proximity to a person's residence.
Prior to his sentencing, Santos told his followers he planned to request solitary confinement in prison.
The former congressman pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud and identity theft charges for exaggerating or lying about parts of his backstory to defraud voters and donors in New York's 3rd Congressional District.
Federal prosecutors said in their sentencing memo that he "made a mockery of our election system" and used a "wholly fictitious biography to enrich himself and capture one of the highest offices."
His offenses ranged from getting a vendor to forge a Baruch College diploma to presenting false financial disclosures to Congress claiming he was a multi-millionaire. He was also accused of faking donations in the names of relatives, creating a fake nonprofit to solicit donations and running a credit card fraud scheme to steal from elderly and cognitively impaired donors.
Santos then spent those donations on luxury items from Hermès and Ferragamo, Botox, a rent payment and other accommodations in Atlantic City and the Hamptons, according to campaign files, bank records and other documents released by the House Ethics Committee.
"From the moment he declared his candidacy for congress, Santos leveraged his campaign for his own enrichment and financial benefit," U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York John Durham said after the sentencing. "He did this by targeting specific supporters and constituents. He saw them as easy marks and he made them victims of his fraud."
The U.S. Department of Justice wanted Santos to serve the maximum 87 months in prison, while his lawyers sought just 24 months. Santos had asked the judge for leniency and read a statement in court, admitting that he betrayed his supporters and the institutions he was sworn to serve.
After the sentencing, he posted a lengthy statement on X, which read in part, "I believe that 7 years is an over the top politically influenced sentence and I implore that President Trump gives me a chance to prove I'm more than the mistakes I've made. Respectfully, George Santos."
The White House said this week it "will not comment on the existence or nonexistence" of any clemency request.
Santos, 37, helped the GOP secure the House in the 2022 midterm elections. But before he was sworn into office, his lies started to unravel.
The first charges were filed against him in May 2023, with more to follow that October. The House Ethics Committee then released a scathing 56-page report detailing the extent of his misconduct.
Santos was removed from Congress weeks later, becoming just the sixth House member to be expelled in the nation's history. Mark Prussin
contributed to this report.
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