NEW YORK (AP) — George Santos is defending his latest social media tirade to a federal decide who will probably be sentencing the disgraced former New York congressman later this week on fraud fees.
In a prolonged letter forward of the Friday court docket date, Santos, 36, mentioned he stays “profoundly sorry” for his crimes however protests that the seven-year jail sentence sought by prosecutors as “ridiculous” and overly harsh.
“Each dawn since that plea has carried the identical realization: I did this, me. I’m accountable,” wrote the previous Republican lawmaker, who pleaded responsible final summer season. “However saying I’m sorry doesn’t require me to sit down quietly whereas these prosecutors attempt to drop an anvil on my head.”
Prosecutors, in a submitting final week, argued Santos “stays unrepentant” and has not proven real regret, as his legal professionals have claimed in their very own submitting searching for a lighter, two-year jail stint.
They cited a collection of posts on X, previously Twitter, wherein he disparaged the U.S. Division of Justice as a “cabal of pedophiles” and solid himself as a sufferer of prosecutorial overreach.
Santos, who admitted he deceived donors and stole the identities of practically a dozen individuals to fund his congressional marketing campaign, countered that his “colourful” posts are being wrongly “repurposed as a sword in opposition to me” by prosecutors.
“Contesting the severity of a proposed sentence will not be the identical as contesting guilt, and punishing protected speech as a result of it questions punishment ought to bother anybody who values truthful prosecution over private vindication,” he wrote.
Santos mentioned calling himself the “scapegoat” in social media posts was in reference to prosecutors claiming he was the “organizer/chief” of his marketing campaign’s monetary fraud and warranted a stiffer sentence. He argued his former marketing campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks, who has additionally pleaded responsible and faces sentencing subsequent month, shares equal half within the blame.
“If I have been the prison mastermind they painting, I might be the clumsiest in fashionable reminiscence: leaving a path of screenshots pointing straight again to myself,” he wrote within the Saturday letter.
Santos additionally pushed again at prosecutors’ claims that he has not made efforts to pay the roughly $580,000 owed as a part of his plea deal, saying he’s “liquidated private belongings, diminished my dwelling bills, and tried as exhausting as I might to lift some cash for restitution.”
He added that he has not requested any of his mates or household to write down letters to the court docket on his behalf, nor did he count on any supporters to attend Friday’s sentencing in Lengthy Island federal court docket out of embarrassment and disgrace.
“I don’t need to carry anybody else in my life into this mess,” Santos wrote. “That is mine to take care of and mine alone.”
The U.S. Lawyer for the Jap District of New York’s workplace, which is prosecuting the case, declined to remark.
Santos was elected in 2022 to characterize components of Queens and Lengthy Island however served barely a 12 months earlier than being ousted by his Home colleagues.
Santos fabricated a lot of his life story, resulting in questions on how the political unknown had funded his profitable marketing campaign.
Comply with Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.