George Santos, the disgraced former congressman from New York who was expelled from the House last year amid a cascade of scandals and criminal charges, told Tucker Carlson this week that he fears for his life as he prepares to serve a federal prison sentence, calling the facility “a death sentence.”
In a wide-ranging interview on Carlson’s independent podcast, Santos, who was sentenced in June to seven years in a federal penitentiary for fraud, money laundering, and false statements, painted a dire picture of his prospects behind bars. “I don’t know that I survive,” he told Carlson. “Where they’re sending me is not a place where people like me walk out alive.”
Santos, 36, was convicted of orchestrating a wide-ranging scheme that included stealing donor funds, fabricating campaign finance reports, and lying to federal investigators.
His fall from grace was as swift as it was spectacular: a first-term congressman once seen as a rising star on the Republican right, Santos was expelled in December 2023 in a rare bipartisan vote following a damning House Ethics Committee report.
Though he expressed regret for what he called “bad decisions,” Santos maintained during the interview that the justice system had treated him unfairly.
He claimed that the Bureau of Prisons had ignored his safety concerns and had deliberately placed him in a high-security facility known for gang violence and overcrowding. “This is not justice,” Santos said. “This is retribution.”
Federal officials have not commented on the specifics of Santos’s placement, citing confidentiality and security protocols. But legal experts note that individuals convicted of white-collar crimes are often placed in lower-security institutions unless there are extenuating factors.
Santos’s comments have drawn mixed reactions. Some conservative media voices have echoed his concerns, with Carlson portraying the sentencing as politically motivated. “They’re sending him to be destroyed,” Carlson said during the broadcast. Critics, however, have been less sympathetic.
“George Santos lied to voters, defrauded donors, and abused the public trust,” said Representative Dan Goldman, Democrat of New York. “He’s not a martyr—he’s a convicted felon.”
Santos said he plans to appeal his sentence and has requested a transfer to a safer facility. “All I want is to serve my time and come home alive,” he said. “But right now, I don’t even know if that’s possible.”
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