George Santos, the criminally convicted congressman who got into the U.S. House of Representatives after the criminally useless New York Democrats failed to put up a fight in the Long Island race he ran in, will not be sentenced until April. He has a podcast, "Pants on Fire with George Santos," and it's making money—money that can be used to pay off restitution and fines.
In a letter to a judge last Friday, Santos' attorneys said their client is required to pay more than $200,000 in forfeiture money 30 days before he is sentenced. They said that, through his podcast, Santos "now has a viable path to making meaningful progress in satisfying his obligations, requiring only additional time for the quarterly compensation structure to generate sufficient funds." They asked the judge to delay his sentencing from Feb. 7 until a Friday in August, but the judge only moved it 10 weeks.
Freedom literally has its price—as prosecutors angrily pointed out: "His request for delay should be denied, and sentencing should proceed as scheduled. A delay to allow Santos to develop his podcast — the title of which is a tone-deaf and unrepentant reference to the crimes he committed — is presumptively unreasonable."
Prosecutors also said Santos has already earned more than $400,000 from Cameo appearances and $400,000 for participating in a documentary. All of this is in addition to his $174,000 salary as a congressman. They took issue with a claim he made that he had less than $1,000 in liquid assets.
