CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) — George Santos, who spun lies about his life into an 11-month stint in Congress, pleaded guilty Monday to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in a case that led to his expulsion from office and the admission that he'd allowed ambition to cloud his judgment.
The former representative, 36, is likely to spend at least six years in prison and owes more than $370,000 in restitution. His guilty plea in federal court on Long Island came weeks before the case was to go to trial. He is to remain free on bond until he is sentenced on Feb. 7.
"I betrayed the trust of my constituents and supporters. I deeply regret my conduct," the New York Republican said, his voice trembling as he entered the plea.
Santos — elected in 2022 after bandying falsehoods about his wealth and background, including a lie that his mother perished in the 9/11 attacks — told reporters outside court that his political ambitions had led him "to make decisions that were unethical."
"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 said. "It's not only a recognition of my misrepresentation to others, but more profoundly, it is my own recognition of the lies I told myself over these past years."
U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said that in pleading guilty, Santos had told the truth "after years of telling lies."
"And that truth is he is a criminal," Peace said.
Santos was indicted on felony charges that he stole from political donors, used campaign contributions to pay for personal expenses, lied to Congress about his wealth and collected unemployment benefits while actually working.
Peace also said that in addition to the crimes Santos pleaded guilty to, he also admitted to "a litany of other crimes for which the court will hold him accountable at sentencing."
Among them: admitting that he stole multiple people's credit card numbers and charged them for his campaign, that he tricked donors into giving money to a bogus nonprofit and used the cash to buy designer clothing, and that he fabricated his personal wealth in a financial disclosure report he submitted to Congress.
Santos was expelled from the U.S. House after an ethics investigation found "overwhelming evidence" he had broken the law and exploited his public position for his own profit.
The case has been set for trial in early September. If that had happened, federal prosecutors said Monday that they were prepared to call some 40 witnesses, including members of Santos' campaign, employers and family members.
Santos was once touted as a rising political star after he flipped the suburban district that covers the affluent North Shore of Long Island and a slice of the New York City borough of Queens in 2022.
But his life story began unraveling even before he was sworn into office. At the time, reports emerged that he had lied about having a career at top Wall Street firms and a college degree along with other questions surrounding his biography.
New questions then emerged about his campaign funds.
He was first indicted on federal charges in May 2023, but refused to resign from office.
Santos had previously maintained his innocence, though he said in an interview in December that a plea deal with prosecutors was "not off the table."
Asked if he was afraid of going to prison, he told CBS 2 at the time: "I think everybody should be afraid of going to jail, it's not a pretty place and uh, I definitely want to work very hard to avoid that as best as possible."
Separately Monday, in Manhattan federal court, Judge Denise Cote tossed out a lawsuit in which Santos claimed that late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, ABC and Disney committed copyright infringement and unjustly enriched themselves at his expense by using videos he made on the Cameo app for a "Jimmy Kimmel Live" segment. The judge said it was clear that Kimmel used the clips, which were also posted to YouTube, for purposes of criticism and commentary, which is fair use.
Santos had begun selling personalized videos on Cameo in December shortly after his ouster from Congress. He subsequently launched, then quickly abandoned, a longshot bid to return to Congress as an independent earlier this year.
In a radio interview that aired Sunday, Santos said he has taken comfort in being a "somewhat private civilian" again.
"I really don't miss the rubber chicken dinners and the rah-rah-rah parties and fundraisers," he said of his former life.
With a criminal trial looming, he had said in the WABC interview that he was "terrified."
"This is not absolutely an easy process to go through. It really hurts and it really messes with your psychological health," he told host Cindy Adams.
As the trial date neared in recent weeks, Santos had sought to have a partially anonymous jury, with his lawyers arguing in court papers that "the mere risk of public ridicule could influence the individual jurors ability to decide Santos' case solely on the facts and law as presented in Court."
He also wanted potential jurors to fill out a written questionnaire gauging their opinions of him. His lawyers argued the survey was needed because "for all intents and purposes, Santos has already been found guilty in the court of public opinion."
Judge Joanna Seybert agreed to keep jurors' identities public but said no to the questionnaire.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, had been seeking to admit as evidence some of the financial falsehoods Santos told during his campaign, including that he'd worked at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs and that he had operated a family-run firm with approximately $80 million in assets.
Two Santos campaign aides previously pleaded guilty to crimes related to the former congressman's campaign.
His ex-treasurer, Nancy Marks, pleaded guilty in October to a fraud conspiracy charge, implicating Santos in an alleged scheme to embellish his campaign finance reports with a fake loan and fake donors. A lawyer for Marks said then that his client would be willing to testify against Santos if asked.
Sam Miele, a former fundraiser for Santos, pleaded guilty a month later to a federal wire fraud charge, admitting he impersonated a high-ranking congressional aide while raising money for Santos' campaign.
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Sisak reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press writers Susan Haigh and Larry Neumeister contributed to this report.
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