George Santos will probably go to prison, but…

Michael Arceneaux
4 min readMay 13, 2023

If you’re an accused fame-hungry scammer, making history in Congress and becoming infamous is a win — with or without any felony convictions that result from it.

Photo: Artist Christine Cornell

I am surprised it took this long for George Santos to face felony charges, but he is handling the indictment as most might expect: more stunts and more lies — and the media ready to cover it all.

On Wednesday, the con artist congressman pleaded not guilty to allegations that he embezzled money from his campaign to shop and pay bills, lied to get COVID unemployment pay, and lied to Congress about his income.

Following his court appearance about the 13-count federal indictment Santos told reporters outside the courtroom that the fraud and money laundering charges leveled against him are a “witch hunt.”

“Now I’m going to have to go fight to defend myself,” Santos said. “The reality is that it’s a witch hunt.”

Santos is a former drag queen so ideally I want something sharper than a Trump citation and vintage corrupt politician, but this is his moment.

Some, like Senator Mitt Romney, have seized upon the news to once again call on Santos to resign from Congress.

“He has demonstrated by his untruthfulness that he should not be in the United States Congress —…

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Michael Arceneaux

New York Times bestselling author of “I Can’t Date Jesus” and “I Don’t Want To Die Poor.”