George Santos, the former congressman whose proclivity for lying fueled an unforeseen rise and spectacular fall, will be confronted on Friday with the precise fallout of his criminal case.
Mr. Santos will be sentenced on Friday to a prison term of no less than two years after pleading guilty to charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Federal prosecutors have asked the judge to impose a sentence of 87 months, which they said was necessary “to protect the public from being defrauded by Santos again.”
The final decision rests with Judge Joanna Seybert, who will weigh the severity of Mr. Santos’s crimes against the authenticity of his remorse. She will also decide whether he will be immediately remanded into custody, or given the opportunity to report to prison at a later date.
Mr. Santos last year pleaded guilty to charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft and admitted to a host of other schemes including money-laundering, lying to Congress and fraudulently receiving unemployment benefits.
Lawyers for Mr. Santos have requested that he receive 24 months in prison, the minimum federal sentence for aggravated identity theft. They stressed the nonviolent nature of Mr. Santos’s crime, writing in a letter to the court that “his conduct, though involving dishonesty and abuse of trust, stemmed largely from a misguided desperation related to his political campaign, rather than inherent malice.”
