Disgraced former New York Rep. George Santos has reported to prison to start his more than seven-year sentence, but not without his staple flair for dramatics first.
“Well, darlings… The curtain falls, the spotlight dims, and the rhinestones are packed,” Santos wrote on social media before reporting to prison on Friday.
“From the halls of Congress to the chaos of cable news what a ride it’s been! Was it messy? Always. Glamorous? Occasionally. Honest? I tried… most days,” he wrote. “To my supporters: You made this wild political cabaret worth it. To my critics: Thanks for the press. I may be leaving the stage (for now), but trust me legends never truly exit.”
He signed the post off with: “Forever fabulously yours, George.”
Santos will serve his prison sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, New Jersey. He was sentenced to more than seven years in prison in April after he pleaded guilty last summer to federal wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Santos owes the government nearly $580,000 in fines, including nearly $375,000 in restitution and roughly $205,000 in forfeiture.
He became the first openly gay Republican elected to Congress when he won his New York House seat in 2022. But soon after he was elected, the lies he told about his personal and professional background started to unravel, including where he went to school, where he worked, his ancestors being Jewish and his mother dying in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
An ethics committee report determined there was “overwhelming evidence” he broke the law multiple times and exploited his office for profit. He was expelled from the House in December 2023.
After he was sentenced, Santos took to social media to say that he believes the length of his sentence is “an over-the-top politically influenced sentence.”
He’s shared before that he’s nervous about his sentence, and even said if he dies in prison, it wouldn’t be an accident.
“I’m heading to prison, folks and I need you to hear this loud and clear: I’m not suicidal. I’m not depressed. I have no intentions of harming myself, and I will not willingly engage in any sexual activity while I’m in there. If anything comes out suggesting otherwise, consider it a lie…full stop,” he wrote.
“The statistics around what happens to gay men in BOP custody are horrifying, and that’s exactly why I’m putting this out there now. So if something does happen, there’s no confusion,” he said. “I did NOT kill myself.”
He told Tucker Carlson earlier this month that he’s not sure he’ll survive his stint.
“I don’t know that I survive this. This could be very much my last interview, and I’m not trying to be overdramatic here. I’m just being honest with you,” he said. “I look at this as practically a death sentence to what could occur to me.”
He’s begged President Trump to pardon him, saying he knows he’s not an altar boy but also is not a hardened criminal.
“I’ll take a commutation, clemency, whatever the president is willing to give me,” Santos said on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” in May. “I don’t want this to seem like a political pitch, I want it to be a fair pitch.”
