When George Santos was elected to represent New York’s 3rd Congressional District in 2022, Glen Cove resident Paula Erome remembers being stunned.
“I couldn’t believe that we elected somebody like this,” Erome, an organizer of Concerned Citizens of NY-03, said.
From the moment Santos’s elaborate fabrications began unraveling, Erome and others in her community went into action, protesting, organizing and demanding that he be held accountable.
Their calls were finally answered last week, when U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert sentenced the disgraced former congressman to
seven years in federal prison and over $300,000 in fines.
The sentence followed Santos’s
guilty plea last August to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, as he admitted to defrauding donors, misusing campaign funds and fabricating key aspects of his biography in order to deceive voters.
Erome, who attended Santos’s earlier court appearances and organized a protest in front of his district office after he co-sponsored a bill in Congress proposing the AR-15 as the national firearm, said the sentence brings a sense of justice, but not closure.
“I think there is some justice in his seven-year sentence,” she said. “It’s certainly well-deserved, considering the magnitude of the crimes he committed. But he never showed real remorse. Everything he did felt performative — like he was just echoing the right words, but behind the scenes it was always someone else’s fault. He never truly took responsibility.”
That sentiment was echoed by Glen Head resident Marsha Wiseltier, another politically active constituent who recalled first learning about Santos through his widespread campaign signage, but said she was unaware of his background until The New York Times exposed his fabrications.
“I was shocked when he won,” Wiseltier said. “I’m politically active, but I’d never even heard of him. It reminded me of ‘Catch Me If You Can’ — he just kept reinventing himself,” she added. “But this was beyond embellishment. As someone who worked in human resources, lying on a résumé was always a deal-breaker. And he lied about everything.”
Wiseltier, like many in the 3rd District, was appalled not just by the lies, but by the way Santos clung to power even as scandal engulfed him.
“It was embarrassing to know that this person represented me,” she said. “We didn’t have a real representative. We had no one to call for constituent issues. He was a thief, and people defended him for far too long.”
“My reaction, in sitting in the courtroom, was, ‘Cry me a river,’” said Jody Kass Finkel, a founder of Concerned Citizens of NY-03.
Santos was expelled from Congress
in December 2023, after the release of a damning 56-page House Ethics Committee report and multiple federal indictments.
He was only the sixth member of the House in U.S. history to be expelled. Federal prosecutors detailed five criminal schemes, ranging from identity theft to campaign finance violations.
Outside the courthouse last week, U.S. Attorney John Durham called Santos’s actions “an affront to our electoral process.”
“He’s going to federal prison, and he’s going to be punished for his staggering fraud,” Durham told reporters. “For mocking our democratic institutions and, most importantly, for betraying and defrauding his supporters, his voters, his donors … Today’s sentence demonstrates that this egregious conduct will not be tolerated.”
In court, wearing a gray suit and choking back tears, Santos did his best to appear remorseful. “I betrayed the confidence of my constituents, my colleagues, and my friends and family,” he told Seybert. “I can’t rewrite the past, but I can control the road ahead.”
Seybert, however, did not appear convinced of Santos’s sincerity. “Where is your remorse?” she asked. “It's always someone else’s fault.”
She noted that throughout the nearly two-year legal process, Santos had never showed genuine repentance, and often dismissed the proceedings as politically motivated “lawfare.”
Even after the sentencing, he remained defiant. In a post on X, he called the punishment “an over-the-top politically influenced sentence,” and appealed to President Trump for a pardon.
Outside the courthouse, dozens of former constituents gathered with signs reading “Truth Matters” and “We Refuse to Be Deceived Again.” Among them was Rich Osthoff Jr., the disabled veteran who accused Santos of stealing funds from a GoFundMe meant to save Osthoff’s dying service dog.
“It reminded me of when my dog died because of his deceit and deception, how I felt,” Osthoff said. “I was on my knees, blubbering in the shower. It was good to see (him like) that.”
Wiseltier said the sentence brought some relief — but she added that she hopes Santos serves every day of it.
“My initial reaction was good,” she said. “If it were up to me, he would’ve gotten more. He stole from the unemployment system, from real people. And even at sentencing, he cried, but showed no real contrition. Now he’s out there again, saying it was all politically motivated. Once a grifter, always a grifter.”
As the man who, three years ago, flipped a Democratic seat to secure a Republican House majority was led out of court, he was greeted by jeers. His fall from political power is complete — but for many Long Islanders, the damage he left behind won’t be so easily erased.
