George Santos is 'unrepentant' as he faces years in prison for fraud, prosecutors say

[ad_1] NEW YORK (AP) — Disgraced former U.S. Rep. George Santos “stays unrepentant” as he faces years in federal jail for fraud and identification theft, federal prosecutors say, citing a tirade of his social media posts in latest days.

Prosecutors, in a authorized submitting Thursday, bolstered their arguments for a stiff sentence, saying the 36-year-old New York Republican has disparaged the U.S. Division of Justice as a “cabal of pedophiles” and solid himself as a sufferer of prosecutorial overreach in a number of posts on the social platform X.

“This conduct is antithetical to the ‘real regret’ claimed by Santos’s attorneys,” prosecutors wrote. “His actions converse louder than any phrases, and so they cry out for a major carceral sentence on this case.”

Attorneys for Santos did not instantly reply to an electronic mail looking for remark.

The social media blitz began April 4 after prosecutors and Santos' attorneys submitted their sentencing memos to a decide for consideration throughout his April 25 sentencing in Lengthy Island federal court docket.

"Regardless of how exhausting the DOJ comes for me, they're mad as a result of they'll NEVER break my spirit,” Santos wrote in a single publish.

In one other change on X, he denied utilizing marketing campaign contributions to purchase luxurious items from Hermès, which prosecutors notice is conduct particularly talked about in court docket paperwork.

“Even at this late stage, he merely refuses to completely come clean with his actions,” they wrote of their Thursday submitting, which included screenshots of the social media posts.

Prosecutors are looking for a seven 12 months jail sentence for Santos, saying his “unparalleled crimes” had “made a mockery” of the nation’s election system.

They've additionally steered he has a “excessive chance of reoffending” given he has not forfeited any of his ill-gotten features or repaid any of the victims.

Santos' attorneys, in the meantime, have sought a two-year jail time period, which is the obligatory minimal sentence for aggravated identification theft.

The attorneys argue that Santos has no prior legal file and that such a sentence is according to these handed to former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and different political figures who confronted related monetary crimes.

Santos admitted in August that he duped voters, deceived donors and stole the identities of practically a dozen individuals, together with his family members, to make donations to his congressional marketing campaign.

As a part of the plea deal, he agreed to pay practically $375,000 in restitution and $205,000 in forfeiture.

Santos was elected in 2022 to symbolize elements of Queens and Lengthy Island, however served barely a 12 months in workplace earlier than he was ousted by his Home colleagues — the sixth ever within the chamber's historical past.

The once-rising Republican's political demise got here after it was revealed that he had fabricated a lot of his life story, resulting in questions on how the political unknown had funded his successful marketing campaign.

Santos solid himself as a rich businessman who labored at prestigious Wall Avenue corporations and held a useful actual property portfolio when in actuality he was struggling financially and even confronted eviction.