Ex-Congressman George Santos Is Sentenced to 87 Months in Jail in Federal Fraud Case

George Santos, the previous Republican congressman from New York whose outlandish fabrications and legal schemes fueled an unexpected rise and spectacular fall, was sentenced to greater than seven years in federal jail on Friday.

His 87-month sentence will convey an finish, or no less than a pause, to a turbulent interval during which Mr. Santos was catapulted from anonymity to political and pop cultural infamy, a nationwide highlight that, even when unfavorable, he typically relished greater than rejected.

Mr. Santos pleaded responsible final 12 months to wire fraud and aggravated id theft. He acknowledged his involvement in a wide range of different deceptions, together with mendacity to Congress, fraudulently gathering unemployment advantages and bilking marketing campaign donors out of tons of of hundreds of {dollars}.

Standing earlier than Choose Joanna Seybert in Federal District Court docket in Central Islip, N.Y., a hushed Mr. Santos, 36, appeared far faraway from the swaggering lawmaker whose lies — that he was a university volleyball star and a Wall Road financier with ties to the Holocaust and Sept. 11, to call a number of — turned him right into a nationwide punchline and led to mocking impersonations on “Saturday Night time Reside.”

“Mr. Santos, phrases have penalties,” the decide informed Mr. Santos. “You bought elected along with your phrases, most of which had been lies.”

Mr. Santos was given till July 25 to give up to start serving his time period.

If his lies accounted for his ignominious rise, Mr. Santos’s monetary misdeeds are what triggered his downfall. Effectively earlier than any decision in his legal case, his colleagues within the Home made the unprecedented determination in December 2023 to expel him from Congress and not using a conviction.