Disgraced former U.S. Rep. George Santos “stays unrepentant” as he faces years in federal jail for fraud and identification theft, federal prosecutors say, citing a tirade of his social media posts in latest days.
Prosecutors, in a legal filing Thursday, bolstered their arguments for a stiff sentence, saying the 36-year-old New York Republican has disparaged the U.S. Division of Justice as a “cabal of pedophiles” and solid himself as a sufferer of prosecutorial overreach in a number of posts on the social platform X.
“This conduct is antithetical to the ‘real regret’ claimed by Santos’s attorneys,” prosecutors wrote. “His actions converse louder than any phrases, and so they cry out for a major carceral sentence on this case.”
Attorneys for Santos did not instantly reply to an electronic mail looking for remark.
The social media blitz began April 4 after prosecutors and Santos’ attorneys submitted their sentencing memos to a decide for consideration throughout his April 25 sentencing in Lengthy Island federal courtroom.
“Regardless of how onerous the DOJ comes for me, they’re mad as a result of they may NEVER break my spirit,” Santos wrote in one post.
In another exchange on X, he denied utilizing marketing campaign contributions to purchase luxurious items from Hermès, which prosecutors observe is conduct particularly talked about in courtroom paperwork.
“Even at this late stage, he merely refuses to completely come clean with his actions,” they wrote of their Thursday submitting, which included screenshots of the social media posts.
Prosecutors are looking for a seven 12 months jail sentence for Santos, saying his “unparalleled crimes” had “made a mockery” of the nation’s election system.
They’ve additionally instructed he has a “excessive chance of reoffending” given he has not forfeited any of his ill-gotten features or repaid any of the victims.
Santos’ attorneys, in the meantime, have sought a two-year jail time period, which is the necessary minimal sentence for aggravated identification theft.
The attorneys argue that Santos has no prior legal file and that such a sentence is consistent with these handed to former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and different political figures who confronted related monetary crimes.
Santos admitted in August that he duped voters, deceived donors and stole the identities of almost a dozen folks, together with his circle of relatives members, to make donations to his congressional marketing campaign.
As a part of the plea deal, he agreed to pay almost $375,000 in restitution and $205,000 in forfeiture.
Santos was elected in 2022 to characterize components of Queens and Lengthy Island, however served barely a 12 months in workplace earlier than he was ousted by his Home colleagues — the sixth ever within the chamber’s historical past.
The once-rising Republican’s political demise got here after it was revealed that he had fabricated a lot of his life story, resulting in questions about how the political unknown had funded his profitable marketing campaign.
Santos solid himself as a rich businessman who labored at prestigious Wall Road companies and held a invaluable actual property portfolio when in actuality he was struggling financially and even confronted eviction.
