WASHINGTON — Former Rep. George Santos was sentenced to 87 months in federal prison on Friday, bringing an end to a yearslong saga that culminated in the New York Republican’s removal from office in 2023.
Santos received the maximum sentencing in federal district court in Central Islip, New York, by Judge Joanna Seybert as the former congressman quietly wept. Santos addressed the judge before his sentencing was handed, acknowledging that his “conduct betrayed my supporters and the institutions I swore to uphold.”
“Mr. Santos, words have consequences,” Seybert said. “You got elected with your words, most of which were lies.”
The sentencing comes after Santos pleaded guilty last year to charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft as part of a plea deal.
Santos was indicted in 2023 over accusations that he had misled donors by lying about his personal and professional resume and that he had used campaign funds for personal purchases, such as Botox, designer clothing, cosmetics, and an account on OnlyFans, an internet subscription service that is mostly known for sexually explicit content.
The indictment also found that Santos lied on congressional documents by reporting “fictitious loans to his political committees” to incentivize donors to make further contributions — only to use those “repayments” to pay off his own loans.
Santos faced a slew of other ethics violations after being investigated by the House Ethics Committee, which concluded that Santos knowingly filed false or incomplete reports to the Federal Election Commission, used his campaign funds for personal purposes, and “engaged in knowing and willful violations” in relation to the Ethics in Government Act.
Santos was later expelled from the House in a 311-114 vote, with 105 Republicans joining their Democratic colleagues to remove him from office. Santos is only the sixth member of Congress to be removed from office and the first to be expelled without having first been convicted of a crime or having fought for the Confederacy.
Seybert based the 87-month sentencing on recommendations from prosecutors who said that Santos needed to serve out the maximum sentence to consider the “seriousness of his unparalleled crimes” and “to protect the public from being defrauded.”
Prosecutors also accused Santos of showing little remorse for his actions, pointing to social media posts in which Santos counted down the days to his own sentencing and appeared to lack regret.
“I came to this world alone. I will deal with it alone, and I will go out alone,” Santos told The New York Times ahead of his sentencing.
While Santos’ attorneys pushed for a lighter sentence, the former congressman said earlier this week he would not seek a pardon and that he would accept “full responsibility.”
“But saying I’m sorry doesn’t require me to sit quietly while these prosecutors try to drop an anvil on my head. True remorse isn’t mute; it is aware of itself, and it speaks up when the penalty scale jumps into the absurd,” Santos wrote in a letter to Seybert on Tuesday.
Santos has until July 25 to surrender himself and begin his time in prison.