Disgraced US politician George Santos jailed for 7 years

The Republican was expelled from the US Congress for using stolen donor cash to bankroll designer suits, Botox and porn subscriptions.

Disgraced former Republican politician George Santos, who was expelled from the US Congress for using stolen donor cash to bankroll a lavish lifestyle including designer suits, Botox and subscriptions to online porn sites, was sentenced to seven years in prison on Friday.

Ann Donnelly, the district attorney for Nassau County on New York’s Long Island, was scathing of Santos.

“He told lie after lie until we caught up with him and exposed him for what he was – an opportunist and a fraud,” she said.

“Santos was the polar opposite of what a public servant should be. He is unconcerned with his constituents.

“Designer clothes were more important to him that the rule of law, luxury more important that the oath he took to serve his country”.

George Santos leaves federal court after being sentenced to more than seven years in prison for fraud and identity theft. Picture: AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson

Judge Joanna Seybert in Federal District Court in Central Islip, Long Island, sentenced Santos, 36, to seven years and three months after he plead guilty to wire fraud and identity theft for his elaborate grifting while a lawmaker.

He had already been ordered Santos to pay more than $US370,000 ($A580,000) in restitution which prosecutors say has gone unpaid.

Well-wishers put their arms around Santos, who wore a charcoal suit and sunglasses, as he arrived at the courthouse for sentencing.

Ahead of his sentencing, Santos suspended his Cameo account on which users had been able to pay to request custom videos.

“I have disabled the ability to make new requests as I am unsure if I will be able to fulfil them in recent days,” he wrote on X.

He has said that he has no plans to request a pardon from US President Donald Trump and is resigned to prison.

Santos’ bizarre biographical fabrications included claiming to have worked for Goldman Sachs, being Jewish and having been a college volleyball star. Picture: AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson

Despite his guilty plea, federal prosecutors have insisted that Santos’ social media shows his claims of remorse “ring hollow”.

“Despite years of actively courting media attention and capitalising on his infamy, Santos has forfeited nothing of his ill-gotten gains and has not repaid one cent to any of the victims of his financial crimes,” prosecutors wrote.

The downfall of the congressman came after it was revealed he had fabricated almost his entire backstory including his education, religion and work history.

Santos was elected to the US House of Representatives in 2022 and indicted the following year for stealing from campaign donors and engaging in credit card fraud, money laundering and identity theft.

Santos used donor money for Botox treatments and the OnlyFans porn website, as well as luxury Italian goods and vacations to the Hamptons and Las Vegas, according to an investigation by a congressional ethics committee.

Santos used donor money for Botox treatments and the OnlyFans porn website. Picture: AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson

He had been scheduled to go on trial on September 9 on some two dozen charges, but opted instead to enter a guilty plea to wire fraud and identity theft.

Santos’ bizarre biographical fabrications included claiming to have worked for Goldman Sachs, being Jewish and having been a college volleyball star.

He was ultimately doomed by the congressional probe that found overwhelming evidence of misconduct and accused him of seeking to “fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy”.

Santos was expelled from the House in 2023, becoming only the third person to be ejected as a US lawmaker since the Civil War, a rebuke previously reserved for traitors and convicted criminals.

In February 2024, voters in his suburban New York district picked Democrat Tom Suozzi to replace him.