The disgraced former congressman George Santos is defending his recent social media remarks to a federal judge who will sentence him this week on several fraud charges.
In a letter before his Friday court appearance in New York, Santos, 36, said he was “profoundly sorry” for his crimes but believed a seven-year prison sentence was too harsh, AP reported.
“Every sunrise since that plea has carried the same realization: I did this, me. I am responsible,” Santos, who has pleaded guilty, wrote. “But saying I’m sorry doesn’t require me to sit quietly while these prosecutors try to drop an anvil on my head.”
Santos’s letter comes after prosecutors accused him of “[remaining] unrepentant” and not being sincerely apologetic for his crimes. Santos’s defense team is seeking a two-year prison sentence, according to a filing last week.
Prosecutors referenced Santos’s social media posts, including one where he accused the justice department of being a “cabal of pedophiles”, to support their demand for a seven-year sentence.
Santos said his social media posts were being used “as a sword against me” and that he was not denying his guilt.
“Contesting the severity of a proposed sentence is not the same as contesting guilt, and punishing protected speech because it questions punishment should trouble anyone who values fair prosecution over personal vindication,” Santos wrote, also referring to himself as a “scapegoat”.
Santos also challenged prosecutorial claims that he has not made attempts to pay back the $580,000 he owes as part of his plea bargain.
Santos pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in August after running a fraudulent campaign for the United States House of Representatives in New York’s third congressional district.
Prosecutors, at the time, highlighted Santos’s plea as the first time that he has “told the truth about his criminal schemes”.
“He admitted to lying, stealing and conning people,” US attorney Breon Peace for the eastern district of New York said. “His flagrant and disgraceful conduct has been exposed and will be punished.”
The Guardian has contacted Santos’s team for further comment.
