Former U.S. Rep. George Santos. (Washington Blade photo by Christopher Kane)
Former U.S. Rep. George Santos of Long Island, N.Y., who was the first out gay non-incumbent Republican to win election to Congress in 2022 and whose congressional colleagues voted to expel him last year, pleaded guilty on Aug. 19 to felony charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors.
His guilty plea came a little over a year after a federal grand jury indicted him in May 2023 on 13 counts of defrauding campaign donors and falsely claiming unemployment benefits. Last October prosecutors obtained another indictment that included the charge of aggravated identity theft on grounds that he falsified campaign donation information with the Federal Election Commission. He initially pleaded not guilty to the charges.
CBS News reports that a judge at the U.S. District Court in Central Islip, N.Y., which is on Long Island, set a sentencing date for Feb. 7, 2025, and said Santos faces an estimated sentencing range of between six and eight years in prison. Under the plea agreement, Santos will be required to repay at least $373,000, according to CBS News.
Had he not accepted the plea deal he was expected to go on trial in September.
“I understand that my actions betrayed my supporters and constituents,” the Washington Post quoted Santos as saying during the court hearing in which he pleaded guilty to the two charges. “I am committed to making amends and learning from this experience,” the Post quoted him as saying.
Santos, 36, who was expelled from Congress last December, is one of only five members of Congress who have been expelled in U.S. history. The Washington Post reports that three were expelled in 1861 for supporting the Confederacy during the U.S. Civil War, and two others, one in 1980 and the other in 2002, were expelled after being convicted of bribery.
In his 2022 race for New York’s Third Congressional District seat, which includes part of Nassau County on Long Island and part of the New York City Borough of Queens, Santos defeated another gay candidate, Democratic businessman Robert Zimmerman. Political observers have said the two appeared to be the first two openly gay U.S. House candidates to run against each other in a general election.
Santos won the election in what is considered a swing district by a margin of 53.7 percent to 46.3 percent. Following Santos’s expulsion, Long Island Democrat Tom Suozzi emerged as the winner in a special election on Feb. 13 of this year.
The Washington Post reports that from among the total of 23 felony charges that Santos faced before his guilty plea he was alleged to have defrauded campaign donors and used their money for personal expenses, including the purchase of designer clothing; he allegedly stole his donors’ identities and made thousands of dollars of purchases on their credit cards; received unemployment benefits when he was employed; lied to Congress about his finances; and falsified campaign finance reports.
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