NEW YORK (AP) — Disgraced former U.S. Rep. George Santos reported to a federal jail in New Jersey on Friday to start serving a seven-year sentence for the fraud expenses that bought him ousted from Congress.
The federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed that the New York Republican was in custody on the Federal Correctional Establishment in Fairton, in southern New Jersey.
Santos pleaded guilty final summer season to federal wire fraud and aggravated identification theft expenses for deceiving donors and stealing folks’s identities in an effort to fund his congressional marketing campaign.
His lawyer Joe Murray, when requested for remark Friday, responded with a quick, all-caps textual content: “FREE GEORGE SANTOS.”
The ever-online Santos, who turned 37 years outdated on Tuesday, hosted a farewell party for himself on the social media platform X on Thursday night time.
“Effectively, darlings … The curtain falls, the highlight dims, and the rhinestones are packed,” he wrote in a post afterwards. “From the halls of Congress to the chaos of cable information what a experience it’s been! Was it messy? At all times. Glamorous? Sometimes. Trustworthy? I attempted … most days.”
Santos will serve his time in a minimal safety camp on the all-male facility, which additionally features a bigger medium safety jail, in response to the Bureau of Prisons.
In a Thursday interview, he didn’t identify the jail the place he was serving his sentence, however described the camp setting as a “massive improve” from the medium-security lockup he was initially assigned to.
Among the many different notable inmates serving time at Fairton is Lamor Miller-Whitehead. The Brooklyn preacher, recognized for his flashy life-style and friendship with New York Metropolis’ Mayor Eric Adams, was sentenced to nine years in jail final yr for fraud.
In April, a federal choose declined to offer Santos a lighter two-year sentence that he sought, saying she was unconvinced he was actually remorseful. Within the weeks earlier than his sentencing, Santos mentioned he was “profoundly sorry” for his crimes, however he additionally complained regularly that he was a sufferer of a political witch hunt and prosecutorial overreach.
Santos was elected in 2022, flipping a rich district representing elements of Queens and Lengthy Island for the GOP. However he served for lower than a yr and have become simply the sixth member of the Home to be ousted by colleagues after it was revealed he had fabricated a lot of his life story.
Throughout his successful marketing campaign, Santos painted himself as a profitable enterprise proprietor who labored at prestigious Wall Avenue companies when, in actuality, he was struggling financially.
He additionally falsely claimed to have been a volleyball star at a school he by no means attended and referred to himself as “a proud American Jew” earlier than insisting he meant that he was “Jew-ish” as a result of his Brazilian mom’s household had a Jewish background.
The cascade of lies ultimately led to congressional and prison inquiries into how Santos funded his campaign and, in the end, his political downfall.
Since his ouster from Congress, Santos has been making a dwelling internet hosting a podcast known as “Pants on Hearth with George Santos” and hawking customized video messages on Cameo.
He has additionally been holding out hope that his unwavering assist for President Donald Trump would possibly assist him win a last-minute reprieve.
The White Home mentioned this week that it “won’t touch upon the existence or nonexistence” of any clemency request.
In media appearances this month, the previous lawmaker wasn’t shy about sharing his morbid fears about life behind bars.
“I’m not making an attempt to be overdramatic right here. I’m simply being sincere with you. I have a look at this as virtually a loss of life sentence,” Santos advised Tucker Carlson throughout an interview. “I’m not constructed for this.”
On social media, his current musings have typically taken a darkish flip.
“I’m heading to jail, people and I would like you to listen to this loud and clear: I’m not suicidal. I’m not depressed. I’ve no intentions of harming myself, and I can’t willingly interact in any sexual exercise whereas I’m in there,” Santos mentioned on X. “If something comes out suggesting in any other case, contemplate it a lie … full cease.”
