Former Republican congressman George Santos, who GOP colleagues ousted, was sentenced to 87 months in prison for wire fraud and identity theft.
Federal prosecutors asked for an 87-month custodial sentence, and his legal team asked for a two-year sentence.
The government submitted a list of Santos’s recent social media posts as evidence to prove he was “unrepentant for his crimes.”
One of his tweets was, “No matter how hard the DOJ comes for me, they are mad because they will never break my spirit.”
In a filing on April 21st, Santos wrote that he was “profoundly sorry for the criminal conduct,” and that he believes “that the department of justice’s demand for an 87-month sentence, in its effort to weaponize my speech as proof of incorrigibility, is an overreach that I have a both a constitutional right the civic duty to protest.”
“True remorse isn’t mute; It is aware of itself, and it speaks up when the penalty scale jumps into the absurd. This distinction seems lost on the prosecution, who would rather slap a ‘keep quiet or else’ sticker on me and steam press whatever spirit I’ve got left.”
He probably had more than five years added to his sentence for lack of repentance.
Quite a fall from grace. From Congress to prison, from congressman to con man.
What do you think about using tweets to add to criminal punishments? What do you think about acting repentant for a lighter sentence?
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