NEW YORK — George Santos is protecting his contemporary social media tirade to a federal pass judgement on who will likely be sentencing the disgraced former New York congressman later this week on fraud fees.
In a long letter forward of the Friday courtroom date, Santos, 36, stated he stays “profoundly sorry” for his crimes however protests that the seven-year jail sentence sought via prosecutors as “ridiculous” and overly harsh.
“Each and every daybreak since that plea has carried the similar realization: I did this, me. I’m accountable,” wrote the previous Republican lawmaker, who pleaded to blame ultimate summer time. “However pronouncing I’m sorry doesn’t require me to sit down quietly whilst those prosecutors attempt to drop an anvil on my head.”
Prosecutors, in a submitting ultimate week, argued Santos “stays unrepentant” and has no longer proven authentic regret, as his legal professionals have claimed in their very own submitting searching for a lighter, two-year jail stint.
They cited a chain of posts on X, previously Twitter, during which 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 just about a dozen other folks to fund his congressional marketing campaign, countered that his “colourful” posts are being wrongly “repurposed as a sword in opposition to me” via prosecutors.
“Contesting the severity of a proposed sentence isn’t the similar as contesting guilt, and punishing secure speech as it questions punishment must bother any person who values honest prosecution over non-public vindication,” he wrote.
Santos stated calling himself the “scapegoat” in social media posts used to be in connection with prosecutors claiming he used to be the “organizer/chief” of his marketing campaign’s monetary fraud and guaranteed a stiffer sentence. He argued his former marketing campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks, who has additionally pleaded to blame and faces sentencing subsequent month, stocks equivalent section within the blame.
“If I have been the felony mastermind they painting, I will be the clumsiest in trendy reminiscence: leaving a path of screenshots pointing immediately again to myself,” he wrote within the Saturday letter.
Santos additionally driven again at prosecutors’ claims that he has no longer made efforts to pay the kind of $580,000 owed as a part of his plea deal, pronouncing he’s “liquidated non-public property, decreased my dwelling bills, and attempted as arduous as I may just to lift some cash for restitution.”
He added that he has no longer requested any of his buddies or circle of relatives to put in writing letters to the courtroom on his behalf, nor did he be expecting any supporters to wait Friday’s sentencing in Lengthy Island federal courtroom out of embarrassment and disgrace.
“I don’t need to carry any person else in my existence into this mess,” Santos wrote. “That is mine to care for and mine by myself.”
The U.S. Lawyer for the Japanese District of New York’s place of job, which is prosecuting the case, declined to remark.
Santos used to be elected in 2022 to constitute portions of Queens and Lengthy Island however served slightly a yr sooner than being ousted via his Area colleagues.
Santos fabricated a lot of his existence tale, resulting in questions on how the political unknown had funded his profitable marketing campaign.
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Observe Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.
