Disgraced former US Rep. George Santos to begin serving his 7-year fraud
sentence
[July 25, 2025]
By PHILIP MARCELO
NEW YORK (AP) — Disgraced former U.S. Rep. George Santos is expected to
begin serving a seven-year prison sentence on Friday for the fraud
charges that got him ousted from Congress.
The New York Republican pleaded guilty last summer to federal wire fraud
and aggravated identity theft charges for deceiving donors and stealing
people’s identities in order to fund his congressional campaign.
He must report to federal prison before 2 p.m. It’s unclear where he’ll
serve his time, though a federal judge has recommended that Santos be
housed in a facility in the Northeast.
Santos and his lawyers declined to comment to The Associated Press ahead
of him reporting to prison. The federal Bureau of Prisons, meanwhile,
said it doesn’t discuss the status of inmates until they’re officially
in custody.
As Friday approached, though, the loquacious former lawmaker, who turned
37 on Tuesday, wasn't shy about sharing his morbid fears about life
behind bars.
“I’m not trying to be overdramatic here. I’m just being honest with you.
I look at this as practically a death sentence,” Santos told Tucker
Carlson during an interview. “I'm not built for this.”
In a Thursday interview with Al Arabiya, a Saudi state-owned news
organization, he said he’ll serve his sentence in a minimum-security
prison “camp” that he described as a “big upgrade” from the
medium-security lockup he was initially assigned to.
On X this week, Santos posted a video clip of Frank Sinatra's “My Way.”
“And now, the end is near. And so I face the final curtain," the singer
aptly croons.
Other posts took a darker tone.
“I’m heading to prison, folks and I need you to hear this loud and
clear: I’m not suicidal. I’m not depressed. I have no intentions of
harming myself, and I will not willingly engage in any sexual activity
while I’m in there,” he said on X. "If anything comes out suggesting
otherwise, consider it a lie … full stop.”
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Former U.S. Rep. George Santos arrives at federal court for
sentencing, April 25, 2025, in Central Islip, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julia
Demaree Nikhinson, file)
In April, a federal judge declined to give Santos a lighter two-year
sentence that he sought, saying she was unconvinced he was truly
remorseful. In the weeks before his sentencing, Santos said he was
“profoundly sorry” for his crimes, but he also complained frequently
that he was a victim of a political witch hunt and prosecutorial
overreach.
Santos was elected in 2022, flipping a wealthy district representing
parts of Queens and Long Island for the GOP. But he served for less
than a year and became just the sixth member of the House to be
ousted by colleagues after it was revealed he had fabricated much of
his life story.
During his winning campaign, Santos painted himself as a successful
business owner who worked at prestigious Wall Street firms when, in
reality, he was struggling financially.
He also falsely claimed to have been a volleyball star at a college
he never attended and referred to himself as “a proud American Jew”
before insisting he meant that he was “Jew-ish” because his
Brazilian mother’s family had a Jewish background.
The cascade of lies eventually led to congressional and criminal
inquiries into how Santos funded his campaign and, ultimately, his
political downfall.
Since his ouster from Congress, Santos has been making a living
hosting a podcast called “Pants on Fire with George Santos” and
hawking personalized video messages on Cameo.
He has also been holding out hope that his unwavering support for
President Donald Trump might help him win a last-minute reprieve,
though the White House said this week that it "will not comment on
the existence or nonexistence" of any clemency request.
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