Gay former Rep. George Santos (R-NY) has said that he will flee the United States after he is released from prison—but his promise is doubtful, considering his long history of lying and breaking promises.
Last Friday, a federal judge sentenced Santos to 87 months in prison for crimes including wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, money laundering, and other frauds and financial misdealing. He initially pleaded “not guilty” to all charges, calling them a “baseless” “witch hunt,” but later accepted a plea deal to avoid a weeks-long public trial and possible decades in prison. After his sentencing, he then begged the president for a pardon after saying he wouldn’t.
Now, as he awaits his new prison cell, Santos recently wrote on X, “Once I finish my obligations with the US criminal justice system I will leave and never return. I[‘d] rather take my chances in other countries than live in a country that has a weaponized justice system and is run by the industrial prison complex.”
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Responding to commenters on his post, Santos wrote, “I rather live a [quiet] life where my speech won’t be used against me.” Indeed, prosecutors successfully argued for the judge to sentence Santos to seven years in prison due to his social media posts proclaiming innocence for charges to which he had already pleaded guilty. Before his sentencing, U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert noted Santos’ seeming lack of remorse for his crimes.
Responding to commenters on his X post, Santos wrote, “Im a multi national… I can live in the Mercosul nations and EU [European Union]… I’m not tied to the US passport only.” Many other commenters called him a criminal and used various GIFs of people enthusiastically or dismissively bidding him goodbye.
Santos’ promise to leave the country may turn out to be like other promises he has broken. His campaign biography repeatedly lied to his constituents about his education, mother’s death, and other life experiences. He repeatedly denied being a drag queen but eventually admitted to it. He repeatedly denied having committed financial fraud in Brazil but later made a formal legal confession to doing so.
After facing dismissal from the U.S. House, he initially promised that he wouldn’t re-run for office, but then he did as an independent (only to drop out a month later amid worries that he’d take votes from a Republican candidate).
What is George Santos guilty of?
Last August, Santos admitted to using campaign funds, another person’s identity, and their credit cards for his own personal benefit. A November 16, 2023, House Ethics Committee report accused Santos of illegally spending campaign funds on luxury goods, OnlyFans subscriptions, and cosmetic Botox treatments. Immediately after, the House voted to expel Santos in a 311-114 vote that included 105 Republicans and surpassing the 290 votes needed for expulsion.
Santos originally faced 23 federal charges of campaign finance fraud, including wire fraud, identity theft, money laundering, theft of public funds, and making materially false statements to both the Federal Election Commission and the U.S. House of Representatives.
Santos has since admitted that he lied about graduating from Baruch College and New York University, working directly for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, and living at a fake address in his congressional district. He provided no additional proof to back up claims that he founded a charity called Friends of Pets, that he lost four employees in the June 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting, and that his mother died in connection to the September 11 terrorist attacks.
After his expulsion, Santos began making money creating personalized videos on the Cameo platform. Santos claimed that his largely fake campaign biography — which he previously admitted fabricating due to “stupidity” and “insecurity” — was actually falsified by an unnamed “former campaign staffer.”
“From his creation of a wholly fictitious biography to his callous theft of money from elderly and impaired donors, Santos’s unrestrained greed and voracious appetite for fame enabled him to exploit the very system by which we select our representatives,” Department of Justice prosecutors wrote in their request for a seven-year prison sentence.
After joining Congress, Santos cosponsored a bill to roll back LGBTQ+ civil rights and one to ban LGBTQ+ books from schools. He also made public statements against transgender people and the so-called “radical rainbow mafia.” Additionally, he said that LGBTQ+ families “create troubled individuals.”
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