Former Rep. George Santos (RN.Y.) said he was ready to accept the maximum 87-month prison sentence that prosecutors would seek when they appeared in court on Friday, but he hoped the judge would provide him with some grace.
“Now, my expectation is that I’m going to be in jail for 87 months,” Santos said in a telephone interview with The New York Times on Wednesday. “I’m completely quitting.”
He added: “I came to this world alone. I will handle it alone, I will go out alone.”
In an OANN interview with former Congressman-turned host Matt Gates (R-Fla.) on Thursday, Santos discussed his expectations for Friday’s sentencing hearing.
“I hope what happens tomorrow is that the judge is fair, balanced, and even different from the federal prosecutor who is trying to put the anchor in my mind … Her fact is more, not putting it into practice in the direction of the individual,” Santos said.
“I take full responsibility for the bad behavior I’ve done, and I regret it,” Santos added. “But I feel like I’ve been in seven years and you can’t see some bad people for so long.”
Asked about how long he thought it was a fair prison time, Santos told his former colleague: “I don’t know what would be fair, but I know seven years are beautiful, beautiful.”
Prosecutors, who were sentenced to seven years in prison for losing his shamed former Congressman, was deprived of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft last year after the House Ethics Committee reported that he deceived donors to raise funds for personal gain.
Santos’ attorneys demanded a two-year prison sentence, the minimum sentence for serious identity theft.
Santos, a controversial figure, said he was worried about his safety and planned to file for his own judgment.
“The first is that I plan to serve all of all (incarcerated) sentences in solitary confinement because I am worried about my safety,” Santos told Gates. “So, it’s definitely not an easy task, it’s a huge task.”
Gaetz asked Trump ally Santos that the president’s recent pardon for a former Las Vegas lawmaker convicted of wire fraud has made Santos give Trump “any specific hope” similar to grace.
“I didn’t ask the president for pardon,” Santos said. “A lot of people have been asking me this question, but obviously if the president wants to extend one, I would be very grateful because he would take my weight off.”
Santos added: “But I hope to say it again – hope is the last death – like, I can hope for a lot of things, I hope he hopes he can see me too.”