"Financed by fraud": Officials praise 7+ year prison sentence for former US Rep. George Santos

Former U.S. Representative George Santos, who was expelled from Congress after a brief and scandal-plagued tenure, was sentenced by a federal judge on Friday to more than seven years in prison for fraud and identity theft.

Prosecutors say the former congressman exaggerated or fabricated large parts of his backstory to defraud voters and donors in New York's 3rd Congressional District. He faced nearly a dozen criminal charges and pleaded guilty to two counts last August.

In a sentencing document filed earlier this month, prosecutors said Santos "made a mockery of our election system," and used "a wholly fictitious biography to enrich himself and capture one of the highest offices.