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Disgraced former Congressman George Santos made a deal and pled guilty to two corruption charges Monday in an Islip court room, meaning he will now face anywhere from two to twenty years in prison when he is sentenced In February. The ersatz lawmaker said that he “allowed ambition to cloud [his] judgment” when he committed wire fraud and identity theft, and he “betrayed the trust” of his constituents. ABC News investigative reporter Peter Charalambous covered the sentencing; he appeared on 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program and said the jovial and brash George Santos the world saw over the past couple of years was nowhere to be found outside the courtroom Monday.
Charalambous described George Santos in a way that perhaps nobody has ever seen publicly. “It’s interesting, compared to that jolly, happy, confident, at times brazen George Santos that we were used to seeing in 2022 when he successfully got into Congress and over the last few years, yesterday it was a different version of Geore Santos. He was sad, he was fighting back tears, he was remorseful, even telling the judge in court yesterday that he was committed to making amends and learning from his experience, apologizing for betraying his constituents.”
But the plea deal may yet unravel, as Charalambous described a possible snag that could still trip up the surprisingly humbled Santos. “At the end of the hearing yesterday, Santos’ lawyers flagged that the former congressman doesn’t actually have the money to pay the asset forfeiture that he needs to do before sentencing. This nearly derailed the plea proceeding when Santos’ lawyers flagged this issue, and it remains an outstanding question because, according to Santos’ own lawyers, he does not have $200,000. He’s going to have to try and find that money over the next five months ahead of his February 7th sentencing.”
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