Former US Rep. George Santos seeks to delay fraud sentencing to make more podcast episodes

Disgraced former congressman George Santos has asked a New York judge to delay his sentencing on federal fraud charges until the summer so he can pay off more than half a million dollars in fines by making more episodes of his recently launched podcast “Pants on Fire.”But prosecutors, in their response Tuesday, dismissed the New York Republican’s promises of a financial boon as “extremely speculative” and derided the program’s title as a “tone-deaf and unrepentant reference to the crimes he committed.”They also cast doubt on his claim of having little more than $1,000 in liquid assets as they argued for the sentencing to proceed as scheduled on Feb.7.Prosecutors say the 36-year-old Santos has earned more than $400,000 from appearances on Cameo, the video-sharing website, and another $400,000 from a new documentary since he was expelled from the U.S.

House in December 2023.Santos was just the sixth House member in the chamber’s history to be ousted by colleagues.His earnings, prosecutors said, come on top of the roughly $174,000 taxpayer-funded salary he received during his 11-month stint on Capitol Hill.“His letter fails to provide any accounting of his current financial condition; fails to offer any explanation of his dissipation of assets (including personal spending) in the months since his guilty plea,” prosecutors wrote.Lawyers for Santos didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday.Elected in 2022, Santos was a once-rising Republican star for flipping a wealthy New York district covering parts of Queens and Long Island.But his life story unraveled even before taking office, with his claims of a career at top Wall Street firms and having a college degree debunked amid questions about how he funded his campaign.In August, he pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, admitting that he duped voters, deceived donors, and stole the identities of nearly a dozen people, including his own family membe...