NEW YORK — Convicted fraudster George Santos will report to federal prison Friday with no signs of clemency from President Donald Trump.
The former House member remains loyal to his president anyway — reserving his signature snark for politicians he views as getting off scot-free for comparable allegations.
“I will not waver in my support for him,” Santos told POLITICO in a phone call this week.
But does he hold out hope for an 11th-hour pardon or commutation from Trump?
“I don’t think he can,” Santos said. “He’s in a position where he needs to put the country ahead of one man, and that’s just a fact. He would lose support in the House from Republicans who have already capitulated.”
The saga of Santos reaches a new — and perhaps final — public chapter this week as the serial liar begins his 87-month sentence at an undisclosed facility for a bevy of fraud, embezzlement and identity theft crimes. He’s going out with a whimper. New York GOP leaders who once boosted him as the party’s future — then treated him like its biggest albatross — aren’t even bothering to bid him good riddance.
Santos won election to a Queens and Long Island seat in 2022 despite a falsified résumé (selling himself as a Wall Street superstar) and served nearly all of 2023 in the House fighting allegations of campaign fraud (including spending on designer duds, lavish lodging and Botox). His fellow Republicans kept their distance, and Democrats watched the implosion with glee.
The Long Island federal courthouse where he was indicted in May and October of 2023 and pleaded guilty last August served as his reality show set and runway. He faced reporters with performative defiance and dressed to impress in Ferragamo.
A White House spokesperson would not comment this week on whether there’s a pending clemency request concerning Santos.
Santos’ fabulist-but-make-it-fabulous vibe has dissipated as his prison time nears. He said he’s fearful of being targeted for violence in prison as a gay man — and a former politician at that. And while he has managed to reinvent himself in small ways since he was ousted from Congress, including with paid Cameo appearances and as host of the “Pants on Fire” podcast, Santos said he sees “no light” at the end of his incarceration tunnel.
But there are still glimmers of the outsized character who knocked political Washington and New York off their bearings a couple years ago.
In recent social media posts, he raged over Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.), who is under investigation for alleged ethics and campaign finance violations, and has targeted others he believes should share his fate. The obvious subtext: Why them and not me? He’s also knocked Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy and former President Barack Obama.
In his interview with POLITICO, Santos expressed contempt for the one-time New York Republican colleagues who turned their backs on him, including Reps. Nick LaLota and Mike Lawler. He also slammed Attorney General Pam Bondi as part of a “weaponized” Justice Department, though he won’t say a bad word against her boss, the president.
He discussed his cosmetic procedures with the “Sources Say” podcast, including his lapsed use of “fillers” to smooth wrinkles while behind bars, and saw the disclosures get the tabloid treatment in the New York Post.
He told POLITICO that his song of the moment is Frank Sinatra’s “My Way,” then went on X to post a clip of a particularly relevant verse: “And now, the end is near. And so I face the final curtain.”
He wants credit for the nicknames he’s bestowed on political rivals, including “Senile Joe Biden” and “Temu Obama” for House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, meaning a cheap ripoff of the original. He’s also proud of “Mallio Stock Tips” for his fellow New York Republican Nicole Malliotakis, who traded bank stocks in 2023 while working to address the banking crisis but was cleared of wrongdoing.
Santos at points sounds like the eccentric dissembler who dressed in drag in Brazil, claimed to be “Jew-ish” and accused other politicians who wear sweaters under suit jackets of stealing his look.
It’s all a sort of last hurrah before heading to the slammer.
“I’m not allowed technology at all, and I’ve been notified that I will not be allowed to do interviews either,” Santos said. “They’re shutting me up essentially.”
There’s not much left to say anyway, the one-time member of Congress said.
“I guess I put it all out there,” Santos said. “It’s essentially: sorry. To keep it simple, I should have done better, not for me, but for everyone else as well. Sorry to everyone.”
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