George Santos wins sentencing delay in fraud case, but less than he asked for

Disgraced gay ex-Congressman George Santos has been granted a delay in his sentencing in a fraud case, but less than the delay he asked for.

Santos, a New York Republican, had asked a federal judge to put off the sentencing, scheduled for February 7, until August to allow him time to record more episodes of his new podcast, Pants on Fire With George Santos. His lawyers, in a motion filed Friday, said he needed to make money from ads on the podcast in order to pay a $205,002.97 forfeiture judgment. He pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, and under his plea deal, the forfeiture payment must be made in full 30 days before sentencing. He owes an additional $373,749.97 in restitution.

But late Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert granted a delay only until April 25, the New York Daily News reports. “As a one-time courtesy, this Court will grant a short adjournment on the basis that the ends of justice will be served by this continuance,” Seybert wrote.

Federal prosecutors had opposed Santos’s delay request and questioned his claims about his finances. In a Monday letter to the court, they expressed doubt that his podcast could generate that much income, and they said he had earned much money already.

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“Casting further doubt on Santos’s reasoning is the fact that, in the past year, he has already generated substantial revenue streams through other means, including well more than $400,000 from his Cameo appearances and $400,000 from his participation in a documentary,” they wrote. “Despite earning more than $800,000 (and, prior to that, maintaining a $174,000 publicly-funded salary as a Congressman), Santos has claimed to the Probation Department that he has little more than $1,000 in liquid assets. No explanation is given in Santos’s letter for how those funds were spent. The Court should have serious misgivings about postponing Santos’s sentencing based on his purported failure to save $578,752.94 after having previously claimed in the media to earn $80,000 per day capitalizing on his notoriety.”

Santos’s lawyers responded in a filing Tuesday, saying, “This is simply false. Mr. Santos has not earned over $400,000 in relation to any documentary, nor from his Cameo appearances, and the income that he did generate was primarily used to pay counsel’s fees.”

Santos, expelled from Congress in December 2023 following a House Ethics Committee investigation into his conduct, faces up to six years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines. The investigation uncovered extensive misconduct, including campaign finance violations and fabrications about his background.