WASHINGTON, DC - September 30, 2023: U.S. Rep. George Santos (R-NY) leaves the Capitol after voting no on a bill to avert a government shutdown. (Philip Yabut / Shutterstock)
Federal prosecutors are pursuing a prison sentence of just over seven years for disgraced former Rep. George Santos (R-NY), reported CBS News' Scott MacFarlane on Friday evening, in a motion describing him as a "pathological liar and fraudster."
"Prosecutors argue George Santos engaged in a 'craven' attempt to leverage his lawbreaking to gain celebrity and riches — including by musing about book deal while on courthouse steps," noted MacFarlane on X.
Santos, who was elected in a surprise upset to a Democratic-leaning Long Island district in 2022, was plagued by explosive scandals from the moment he took office, with damning reports revealing that he had faked almost his entire campaign biography, including where he went to school, where he had worked, and claims to have Jewish heritage.
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This was followed up by criminal investigations into his campaign finance practices, which ultimately led to 23 federal fraud charges, with prosecutors alleging that Santos stole state unemployment money and improperly used his donors' credit card information.
Santos, who was expelled from the House in an overwhelming bipartisan vote after a damning Ethics Committee report detailing all the evidence for this misconduct, went on to plead guilty last August.
The sentencing comes as Justice Department officials have broadly exhibited a pattern of interfering in legal cases involving Republican lawmakers. For example, Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) was investigated by Washington, D.C. police over an assault incident on a woman in his penthouse, but Trump's acting D.C. U.S. Attorney, Ed Martin, appears to have effectively disappeared the case.