Prosecutors Seek Over Seven Years for George Santos, Calling His Crimes a Mockery of U.S. Democracy

Edited by: TJVNews.com

Federal prosecutors are seeking a prison sentence of 87 months — just over seven years — for George Santos, the disgraced former Republican congressman from New York whose meteoric political rise was eclipsed by a cascade of lies, deceptions, and federal criminal charges. According to a court filing reported by The New York Times on Saturday, the Department of Justice is calling for a stiff sentence to reflect the “seriousness of his unparalleled crimes.”

Santos, 36, is scheduled to be sentenced on April 25 after pleading guilty last August to two felony charges: wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. These charges were part of a broader 23-count federal indictment that was filed while he was still in office. His sentencing marks the final chapter in one of the most scandalous and surreal political careers in modern U.S. history.

As detailed by The New York Times, prosecutors from the Eastern District of New York have argued that Santos’s actions amounted to a “mockery of our election system.” Their filing paints a portrait of a man who fabricated nearly every detail of his biography — from his education and work history to his charitable credentials — all in the service of attaining power and financial gain.

“He lied to his campaign staff, his supporters, his putative employer and congressional colleagues, and the American public,” prosecutors wrote. “Santos’s conduct has made a mockery of our election system.”

The government’s case emphasizes that this was not a series of minor embellishments or isolated errors, but a calculated and sustained campaign of fraud, deception, and exploitation.

Among the offenses detailed by prosecutors include inflating campaign fundraising numbers to deceive donors and the Federal Election Commission. stealing from campaign donors, including using donor funds for personal expenses, and engaging in identity theft, including fraudulent use of credit card numbers, as was explained in The New York Times report.

His actions, prosecutors argued, were not simply unethical or unbecoming of a public official — they were criminal schemes designed to defraud, mislead, and manipulate for personal and political benefit.

In a separate filing, Santos’s legal team has requested a significantly lighter sentence: the statutory minimum of two years (for the aggravated identity theft charge) followed by probation. As reported by The New York Times, Santos’s attorneys claimed that while his conduct involved “dishonesty and abuse of trust,” it stemmed not from malicious intent but from a “misguided desperation” tied to his ambitions in politics.

They also emphasized that Santos has acknowledged his wrongdoing and agreed to pay $375,000 in restitution, suggesting that the public disgrace he endured — including his historic expulsion from the U.S. House of Representatives — has effectively neutralized any future threat he might pose.

“His conduct, though involving dishonesty and abuse of trust, stemmed largely from a misguided desperation related to his political campaign, rather than inherent malice,” his lawyers wrote.

Prosecutors, however, dismissed this defense as hollow and misleading. In their filing, they argue that Santos’s behavior demonstrates a pattern of predatory behavior, not one-off lapses in judgment. The report in The New York Times indicated that they pointed to his ongoing defiance, including his refusal to step down from office even after overwhelming evidence of guilt came to light, as undermining any post-facto claims of remorse.

They also cited his frequent attempts to frame himself as the target of a political “witch hunt”, a narrative that prosecutors say only “added insult to injury” and further discredited his expressions of contrition.

“A significant sentence is needed to account for the breadth, scope, and predatory nature of Mr. Santos’s crimes,” prosecutors wrote, as reported by The New York Times.

Santos’s story is as extraordinary as it is disturbing. He was elected to Congress in 2022 as part of a red wave in New York, flipping a key seat in Queens and Long Island and immediately becoming a symbol of Republican gains in blue districts. But as The New York Times and other media outlets soon uncovered, Santos had fabricated nearly every detail of his résumé: he never worked for Goldman Sachs or Citigroup, never graduated from Baruch College, and never founded an animal charity.

The scandal escalated with the federal indictment, followed by his unprecedented expulsion from Congress in December 2023, marking only the sixth time in U.S. history that a House member was expelled.

Describing Santos as a “pathological liar and fraudster”, prosecutors from the Eastern District of New York have built their sentencing request around what they argue is a complete lack of genuine remorse and a demonstrable effort to exploit his criminal notoriety. Their filing accuses Santos of leveraging his fall from grace into a platform for personal enrichment, citing his new ventures into entertainment and media, including a podcast titled “Pants on Fire With George Santos”, a cameo account monetizing his persona, and participation in a documentary project.

A post from the podcast’s official X (formerly Twitter) account, quoted by The New York Times, captured his defiant tone: “Long story short, I will NOT succumb to their soul-crushing antics and that makes them furious.”

“He has made efforts to leverage his lawbreaking as a springboard to celebrity and riches,” prosecutors wrote, according to The New York Times.

Santos’s rise to national attention began in 2022, when his election to Congress in New York’s Third Congressional District helped the GOP clinch a narrow majority in the House. Young, openly gay, and the son of Brazilian immigrants, Santos styled himself as a representative of a new, more diverse Republican Party and as a vocal ally of Donald Trump.

But before he could even be sworn in, The New York Times published a bombshell report revealing that much of Santos’s personal and professional history was entirely fabricated. He had lied about attending Baruch College and working for Wall Street giants Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. As reporters dug deeper, they unearthed even more astonishing falsehoods — including Santos’s false claims of having Jewish heritage, family ties to Holocaust survivors, and connections to victims of the 9/11 attacks and the Pulse nightclub shooting.

What emerged was not merely a case of political spin, but a sweeping narrative of deception that prosecutors say extended far beyond resume-padding. The New York Times report indicated that federal charges followed in 2023, eventually totaling 23 felony counts, including wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and campaign finance violations. Santos pleaded guilty to two of the most serious charges in August 2023, after being expelled from Congress in a bipartisan vote — a rare and humiliating censure that placed him among only six House members ever ousted in U.S. history.

In their filing, prosecutors argued that Santos’s crimes were not only deliberate and sustained, but predatory in nature. They accused him of defrauding donors, lying to campaign staff, inflating fundraising numbers, and using stolen identities to access funds illegally.

They also expressed grave doubts about his ability to change.

“He is likely to commit similar crimes again in the future if he was not imprisoned for a substantial period,” prosecutors warned, according to The New York Times.

The government’s position is that a lengthy prison term is the only appropriate response to the scope and brazenness of Santos’s actions, particularly given his continued attempts to cultivate public sympathy and attention.

Santos’s legal team has strenuously objected to the proposed sentence, calling it “draconian” and painting a portrait of a man who made desperate mistakes in pursuit of political success, but who now regrets his actions and wishes to rebuild.

His attorney, Joseph W. Murray, told The New York Times that he was “very disappointed and in fact embarrassed” by the government’s sentencing request.

“George has learned a lot over this process and has accepted responsibility for his actions,” Murray said, describing his client as “an incredibly good-hearted young man” and a personal friend.

Santos is scheduled to be sentenced on April 25, and while federal sentencing guidelines recommend six to seven years, the final decision lies with the judge. The case, as documented by The New York Times, has already set multiple precedents: for the scope of political deception, for the rare expulsion of a sitting congressman, and for the emerging trend of turning scandal into spectacle.

Whether Santos receives a reduced sentence or the full term requested by prosecutors, the broader implications of his rise and fall will resonate for years — not only as a warning about unchecked ambition and dishonesty, but as a cautionary tale about how infamy itself can be monetized in the modern media ecosystem.