George Santos pleads guilty to 2 felonies in fraud case

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — Former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) pleaded guilty Monday to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, avoiding a criminal trial that was set to begin next month.  

Though Santos originally faced 23 felony counts, his lesser plea is still set to carry jail time. Aggravated identity theft carries a two-year mandatory minimum, and the judge estimated his current likely sentence is between 6.25 years and 7.25 years, based on federal guidelines. 

“It’s clear to me now that I allowed ambition to cloud my judgment, leading me to make decisions that were unethical and guilty,” Santos said outside the courthouse, choking up. 

“Pleading guilty is a step I never imagined I’d take, but it is a necessary one because it is the right thing to do,” Santos continued. “It’s not only a recognition of my misrepresentations to others, but more profoundly, it is my own recognition of the lies I told myself over these past years.” 

The two-count guilty plea puts a bookend on the dramatic rise and fall of Santos, who flipped a New York House district from blue to red in 2022 and was hailed as the first openly gay Republican who is not an incumbent to win a House seat. 

Months later, however, he was expelled from the chamber after a damning Ethics Committee report found he deceived donors, stole from his campaign and used the funds for personal use. He became the sixth member to ever be ousted from the House.

Appearing on Monday in federal court on Long Island, where he wore a lapel pin with the U.S. and Israeli flags along with a Star of David, Santos admitted guilt in his criminal case for the first time, more than a year after federal prosecutors first unveiled charges against the New York Republican. He long claimed innocence, even after his House expulsion, though he has engaged in months of plea negotiations with prosecutors.

Santos sat at the defense table, offering a statement admitting to the crimes. He spoke quickly, at one point causing the judge to ask him to slow down. 

“My actions have betrayed the trust of my supporters and constituents. … I accept full responsibility,” Santos said. 

Federal prosecutors were three weeks away from taking Santos to trial on 23 felony charges that accused him of misleading campaign donors, charging their credit cards without authorization, falsely inflating campaign finance reports, fraudulently receiving unemployment benefits and lying on his financial disclosures.   

Appearing before U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert on Monday, Santos admitted to many of those allegations, including that he used money for personal benefit after telling donors it was for television ads. 

His admission to two felonies enables him to avoid the spectacle of a multiweek trial. Prosecutors had indicated they would’ve dived into Santos’s fabricated resume details, such as claiming to have worked at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup and that he graduated from New York’s Baruch College.  

Seybert, an appointee of former President Clinton, scheduled Santos’s sentencing for Feb. 7. The then-congressman acknowledged last year that he was fearful of jail time, telling reporters “wouldn’t you be, I mean, of course,” when asked if he was concerned about going to jail. 

Santos also must pay nearly $374,000 in restitution and roughly $205,000 in criminal forfeiture, the latter of which he was ordered to pay 30 days in advance of his sentencing.

“After years of telling lies, former Congressman George Santos stood in the courthouse right behind me, and finally, under oath, told the truth. And that truth is he is a criminal,” said Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, whose office prosecuted the case. 

The payout of Santos’s forfeiture became a point of contention at the end of the nearly hour-long court hearing. One of Santos’s attorneys said the defense would “make our best efforts” to pay the full sum, noting “at this time he doesn’t have the money.” 

The attorney said it was unclear if Santos’s “employability” had changed in the wake of the guilty plea, as the defense and prosecution went back-and-forth about the terms of the payment. At a point, one of Santos’s lawyers said, “I don’t want to blow up this agreement.” 

Santos was seen burying his head in his hands during the discourse. 

The prosecution said Santos must pay funds available to him and added that if he is unable to meet the entire amount, they will seek other options, including liquidating his assets. 

Santos is the second sitting or former lawmaker to be found guilty of federal crimes this year. A jury last month found Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) guilty on all 16 counts he faced, including bribery and acting as a foreign agent. Menendez’s resignation from the Senate becomes effective Tuesday. He has since abandoned plans for an independent run at returning to the upper chamber.  

Santos, however, was expelled by his colleagues in the House late last year.   

The expulsion — only the sixth in the history — was successful on the third attempt, which was spearheaded by a group of New York Republicans who were under pressure back home.  

The effort passed 311-114 with two abstentions, with a combination of Democrats and Republicans joining together to surpass the two-thirds majority needed to remove someone from the chamber.

The ouster dealt a two-part blow to the House GOP conference: Santos’s absence left it down a vote in the closely divided chamber, and Rep. Thomas Suozzi’s (D) victory in the special election to fill the seat narrowed further narrowed the Republicans’ already razor-thin majority.  

Some of the New York Republicans who forced the successful vote on Santos’s ouster lauded the guilty plea on Monday, arguing that it brought justice to those “defrauded” by the ex-congressman. 

“Infamous fabulist George Santos was brought to justice today for defrauding the members of the public he was elected to represent, and Santos’s guilty plea further reinforces the fact that my successful bipartisan campaign to expel him from Congress as punishment for his misdeeds was the correct course of action,” Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.) said in a statement. 

“Today, defrauded donors tasted further justice, knowing that Santos will soon be behind bars for his fraudulent actions,” Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) echoed in a post on X.

Santos’s court appearance Monday came hours after he suffered another legal defeat. A separate federal judge dismissed his lawsuit against Jimmy Kimmel over personalized Cameo videos the late-night host requested under a fictitious name to air on his show. Two of Santos’s aides previously pleaded guilty to federal crimes.

Nancy Marks, Santos’s former treasurer, pleaded guilty last October, and Samuel Miele, a former fundraiser for the campaign, later admitted to impersonating a House leadership aide and charging donors’ credit cards without authorization. Santos mentioned Marks by name while confessing to the crimes in the courtroom. 

“Our democracy depends upon a fair and transparent election process, and as part of that process, it is imperative that candidates for elective elected office follow the law and that they act with integrity and transparency,” said Nicole Argentieri, principal deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s criminal division. 

“George Santos did none of those things,” she added. 

Updated at 5:36 p.m. ET