Former U.S. Rep. George Santos, who admitted to lying during his campaign and stealing from his donors, reported to federal prison Friday, Gothamist reported.
Santos will serve his time at FCI Fairton in southern New Jersey, Emery Nelson, a spokesperson for the federal Bureau of Prisons, said.
A judge sentenced the ex-New York lawmaker to more than seven years in prison after he pleaded guilty to wire fraud and identity theft. The judge also ordered him to pay more than $370,000 in restitution.
Santos, who once represented parts of Queens and Long Island, faced multiple investigations into his conduct. He was formerly expelled from Congress in late 2023 after a House ethics committee found “substantive evidence” of misconduct and illegal activity.
Federal prosecutors said Santos filed fraudulent campaign documents, stole the identities and financial information of people who contributed to his campaign, charged credit cards without permission, wrongfully obtained unemployment insurance and lied to the U.S. House of Representatives. They also said he embezzled donations and spent the money on personal expenses, including designer clothing.
“This plea is not just an admission of guilt,” Santos told reporters outside the courthouse after he pled guilty last year. “It’s an acknowledgment that I need to be held accountable like any other American that breaks the law.”
In the days leading up to his prison term, Santos has repeatedly posted on social media, expressing a mix of sadness, remorse, life advice and defiance. On X, he posted a clip of Frank Sinatra singing “My Way,” a video of a bear walking with its cubs in the woods and multiple condemnations of federal prosecutors.
Donald Murphy, a spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, declined to share which facility Santos will go to after he arrives, citing safety concerns. He said the Bureau of Prisons makes assignments based on various factors, including the level of supervision the person needs and any necessary security measures to ensure the person’s protection.
Earlier this year, Santos told British media personality Piers Morgan that he was in the process of filling out a clemency application to seek a pardon or senate commutation from President Donald Trump.
“I think no one better than President Trump to know what a weaponized Justice Department looks like, and this is exactly it,” he said. “Seven years and three months for a first-time offender over campaign matters just screams over the top.”
The Hill reported: Former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) reported to prison Friday afternoon, officially capping off the New York Republican’s dramatic rise-and-fall in politics that saw him ascend as a GOP trailblazer before plunging to disgrace.
Santos, 37, surrendered to the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Fairton in New Jersey, according to a spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). The news marks just the beginning of an 87-month prison sentence – more than seven years – which he received after pleading guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft as a part of a plea deal last summer.
He faced 23 federal counts for a number of criminal schemes, including money laundering, theft of public funds, making materially false statements to the House of Representatives and Federal Election Commission (FEC) and falsifying records submitted to obstruct the FEC.
The beginning of Santo’s prison sentence marked the end — for now — of a story that captivated Washington for months, which began in 2022 with praise for the first openly gay Republican to win a House seat as a non-incumbent, gained notoriety when news broke that much of his biography was fabricated, grew larger after two criminal indictments and hit an apex when he was expelled from the House, becoming just the sixth lawmaker to ever be ousted from the lower chamber.
Santos recognized his drama-filled tenure in Congress in a social media post published the day before he reported to prison.
“Well, darlings… The curtain falls, the spotlight dims, and the rhinestones are packed. From the halls of Congress to the chaos of cable news what a ride it’s been!” Santos wrote Thursday on the social platform X. “Was it messy? Always. Glamorous? Occasionally. Honest? I tried… most days.”
He added, “To my supporters, You made this wild political cabaret worth it. To my critics: Thanks for the free press. I may be leaving the stage (for now), but trust eye legends never truly exit.”
USA TODAY reported: Former U.S. Rep. George Santos, a Republican from New York, is expected to surrender to federal custody July 25 to begin serving a prison term after a wire fraud and identity theft conviction.
In April, Santos was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison. Santos was also ordered to pay more than $370,000 in restitution and forfeit another $200,000.
“To my supporters: You made this wild political cabaret worth it,” he wrote. “To my critics: Thanks for the free press. I may be leaving the stage (for now), but trust me legends never truly exit.”
Santos came to Washington as a larger than life character who some in the GOP pointed to as the future of the Republican Party. He basked in the new found notoriety even after news reports began unraveling the majority of the life story he used to win votes.
Santos described himself as a successful business owner with experience at prestigious Wall Street firms. In reality, he was struggling financially and never worked for most of the firms he claimed ties to.
He claimed to have been a volleyball star at, and had multiple degrees from, a college he never attended and referred to himself as “a proud American Jew” before insisting that he was “Jew-ish” because his Brazilian mother’s family had a Jewish background. The misinformation led to congressional and criminal investigations into how he had funded his campaign.
Santos pleaded guilty in August 2024 to felony wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges. As part of the plea, he admitted to filing false campaign finance reports, charging donor’s credit cards without authorization and fraudulently receiving unemployment benefits, among other acts that began years before he ran for Congress.
A House ethics investigation found he had “sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit.”
Santos represented parts of Queens and Long Island for 11 months.
He was expelled from Congress in a bipartisan vote following the release of the House Ethics report.