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The 36-year-old former inhabitant of New York's 3rd Congressional District seat on Long Island was facing 23 felonies, and a trial set to begin next month.
A federal judge will sentence Santos on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York said. According to federal sentencing guidelines, aggravated identity theft carries a mandatory two-year minimum sentence.
Authorities did not disclose the terms of his plea agreement.
Santos has loudly and publicly professed his innocence in the past, but on Monday, he told US District Judge Joanna Seybert that some of the allegations against him were true.
He had been accused of using campaign cash for personal expenses and lying to donors, among other charges.
Santos did not speak with reporters following his guilty plea, and the prolific social media user has been silent online since news of his mea culpa leaked over the weekend.
“Today, for what may seem like the first time since he started his campaign for Congress, Mr. Santos told the truth about his criminal schemes," stated US Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York after the guilty plea was announced. "He admitted to lying, stealing and conning people.
"By pleading guilty, Mr. Santos has acknowledged that he repeatedly defrauded federal and state government institutions as well as his own family, supporters and constituents.
"His flagrant and disgraceful conduct has been exposed and will be punished. Mr. Santos’s conviction demonstrates this Office’s enduring commitment to rooting out corruption and grift by public officials.”
Santos was expelled from Congress late last year following a monthslong ethics investigation. He was just the third representative voted out of office by their colleagues since the Civil War.
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