Lying former Rep. George Santos lashed out at prosecutors online because he was in “distress” over their request for a lengthy prison term — and not because he’s unremorseful for his crimes, his lawyers argued.
Santos — who is slated to be sentenced on Friday in the sprawling fraud case — recently told NY1 he hoped he would be kept in protective custody in prison “because I do fear for my safety.”
Long Island federal prosecutors want the disgraced ex-lawmaker locked up for more than seven years.
The US Attorney’s Office in Central Islip last week notified the judge about a series of unhinged posts Santos, 36, made on X, which they argued showed he was “not genuinely remorseful” after he pleaded guilty last summer.
“No matter how hard the DOJ comes for me, they are mad because they will NEVER break my spirit,” he wrote in an April 4 post, prosecutors told Judge Joanna Seybert.
In a post the next day, Santos wrote: “The DOJ has had a hard on for me since December of 2022.”
“The DOJ gets to step on my neck in T-20 days!” he wrote in another one later on April 5.
On April 7, he posted a photo of himself saying: “Scapegoat!”
The posts showed Santos wasn’t sorry for the crimes he admitted to committing and displayed his “belligerence and an insatiable appetite for ‘likes,’” the feds wrote in court papers filed Thursday.
Santos’ lawyers fired back in a Tuesday filing, insisting their client is remorseful, he was just lashing out over prosecutors asking the judge to sentence him to such a steep prison term.
“His recent online statements, while reflecting his distress regarding the potential length of his sentence, do not undermine his acceptance of responsibility for his crimes,” the defense team argued.
The ex-pol has asked the judge for leniency and that he receive the mandatory minimum he faces of two years imprisonment.
But federal sentencing guideline — meant to help judges determine fair penalties — are set at between six years to just over seven years imprisonment for Santos. The judge is not required to dole out a sentence within the guideline range.
Santos, who represented parts of Queens and Nassau County, Long Island for roughly 11 months, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in a case that saw him face 23 charges for laundering campaign funds and defrauding donors.
He agreed to also pay $373,000 in restitution, but on NY1 Tuesday, Santos said “right now, I am unable to pay anything.”
The feds claimed Santos lied to Congress about his wealth, collected unemployment benefits while he was actually working and used campaign contributions on expenses for himself like buying designer clothes, getting Botox injections and taking lavish trips.
He infamously lied while on the campaign trial, prior to his election in 2022, about graduating from New York University and Baruch College and also about working at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.
Santos was booted from his seat in December 2023. He was only the sixth US Representative to ever be expelled from office.
