Disgraced former congressman George Santos has requested a New York choose to delay his sentencing on federal fraud expenses till the summer season so he can repay greater than half one million {dollars} in fines by making extra episodes of his lately launched podcast “Pants on Hearth.”
However prosecutors, of their response Tuesday, dismissed the New York Republican’s guarantees of a monetary boon as “extremely speculative” and derided this system’s title as a “tone-deaf and unrepentant reference to the crimes he dedicated.”
Additionally they forged doubt on his declare of getting little greater than $1,000 in liquid belongings as they argued for the sentencing to proceed as scheduled on Feb. 7.
Prosecutors say the 36-year-old Santos has earned greater than $400,000 from appearances on Cameo, the video-sharing web site, and one other $400,000 from a brand new documentary since he was expelled from the U.S. Home in December 2023. Santos was simply the sixth Home member within the chamber’s historical past to be ousted by colleagues.
His earnings, prosecutors mentioned, come on high of the roughly $174,000 taxpayer-funded wage he acquired throughout his 11-month stint on Capitol Hill.
“His letter fails to provide any accounting of his current financial condition; fails to offer any explanation of his dissipation of assets (including personal spending) in the months since his guilty plea,” prosecutors wrote.
Elected in 2022, Santos was a as soon as rising Republican star for flipping a rich New York district overlaying components of Queens and Lengthy Island.
However his life story unraveled even earlier than taking workplace, together with his claims of a profession at high Wall Avenue corporations and having a school diploma debunked amid questions on how he funded his marketing campaign.
In August, he pleaded responsible to wire fraud and aggravated identification theft, admitting that he duped voters, deceived donors and stole the identities of almost a dozen individuals, together with his circle of relatives members, to make donations to his marketing campaign.
George Santos spoke to the media after pleading responsible in a Lengthy Island court docket.
On the time, Santos blamed ambition for clouding his judgment and mentioned he was “flooded with deep regret.” He faces a compulsory minimal two-year sentence for the identification theft cost and a most of twenty-two years in jail.
As a part of a deal negotiated with prosecutors, Santos agreed to pay almost $580,000 in fines, together with almost $375,000 in restitution and $205,000 in forfeiture.
However on Friday, his attorneys requested the choose to postpone the sentencing till August, noting he is required to pay the forfeiture 30 days earlier than his court docket date.
They mentioned the weekly podcast he introduced shortly after pleading responsible represents a “promising income stream,” but, due to “technical and logistical impediments,” wasn’t launched till Dec. 15.
“Mr. Santos now has a viable path to making meaningful progress in satisfying his obligations, requiring only additional time for the quarterly compensation structure to generate sufficient funds,” his attorneys wrote.
Prosecutors nonetheless, countered that Santos’ request offers no particulars in regards to the enterprise’s predicted monetary returns.
They mentioned his compensation, primarily based on a report from the probation division, will possible consist of fifty% of internet earnings, to be paid inside 90 days of the top of every calendar quarter — an association that is “highly unlikely to net Santos enough money to satisfy his restitution and forfeiture obligations by August.”
Prosecutors additionally cautioned that granting the delay would “create a perverse incentive structure,” wherein defendants who capitalized on their “notoriety and criminality” had been rewarded.
“Put differently, allowing Santos to stave off sentencing specifically to monetize his infamy would send a message to the public that crime pays,” they wrote.
