Disgraced US representative George Santos claims he has made more than 1,000 videos on the platform Cameo, allowing him to generate a substantial amount of income – about a half-million dollars – since his expulsion from Congress.
Santos said on Sunday during an interview with CNN’s Manu Raju that he had sold “1,200 videos to date” on Cameo, which allows users to buy personalized videos from celebrities.
Santos, a former Republican representative for New York, has been selling the videos since being removed from Congress in December over his misuse of campaign funds.
The former lawmaker had one of the strongest debuts of a celebrity on the platform, Semafor first reported, reportedly earning six figures on the site.
Santos currently sells his videos for $350 each, though for a time they were $500. If his claim is accurate, that would mean the ex-lawmaker has made more than $400,000 on Cameos alone.
Among the more notable of those videos was one bought by Senator John Fetterman. Fetterman had the clip made for fellow US senator Bob Menendez, who is navigating his own pending criminal counts related to fraud.
Outside discussing his Cameo business, Santos declined to give an update on his legal situation to CNN, more specifically if he would accept a plea deal that would keep him out of prison.
Santos has been facing 23 federal charges connected to his misuse of campaign funds. Santos’s charges include money laundering, making false statements to Congress, and theft of public funds, according to a Department of Justice press release.
“I can’t talk about what’s going on there,” Santos said, referring to any potential plea deal. Santos added: “It would be a. irresponsible and b. it would be ill-fated for me to talk about this at this time. But we’re definitely moving through the process, and this is part of the process.”
Santos did tell CNN that he will not vote in the upcoming special election in his former district. He argued that the Republican candidate running for his former seat, Mazi Pilip, is a “Democrat”.
“I’m not voting in the race for the simple fact that I will not bring myself to vote for a registered Democrat, period,” Santos said to CNN.
“There’s two Democrats on the ballot. And the option is, do we get a Democrat or a Democrat, Republican-lite version of a Democrat,” Santos added.
Pilip is indeed a registered Democrat. But she told CNN that she was running as a Republican as she feels the Democratic party “left” her behind.
