This is what you get from George Santos for $200

Three days after George Santos was expelled from the House of Representatives, he sat in front of a camera to address the American people.

Well, some American people. Those willing to pay Mr. Santos — the former congressman charged with federal fraud for stealing money from campaign donors for personal expenses — $200 each through the video app Cameo.

“Hey, Sarah,” Mr. Santos said in a video. “Sometimes work sucks. I mean, let’s talk about bad days, huh? Last Friday wasn’t that great for me either.”

It was a rare moment of truth for Mr. Santos, who lied to voters and his colleagues about where he went to high school, attended college, was a volleyball star, worked on Wall Street, had Jewish ancestry and family ties with the Holocaust. and the September 11 attacks, among others.

There was a time when Mr. Santos expressed regret for some of these untruths. His videos on Cameo suggest that time has passed.

“Hey, Harper! I love that you are such a dedicated student at NYU,” Mr. Santos says all at once, before pausing for a moment, grinning and chuckling. “You know,” he adds, raising his eyebrows, “My… not so real MBA.”

“Hey, Jonny!” Mr. Santos, America’s most notorious Jewish fabulist, says in another article. “I just wanted to wish you a Happy Hanukkah.”

Nor does Mr. Santos give the impression that the swirl of legal consequences — he faces up to 22 years in prison, in part for using donor money for designer goods — worries him too much.

In a video, he tells the recipients to treat themselves to something tasty. “It could be anything from Botox to any luxury items — like a trip to Hermès or makeup from Sephora,” says Mr. Santos, putting it with a knowing look. “Or a subscription to OnlyFans.”

It was unclear how long the former congressman’s pay-per-video hustle might last. His profile appeared Monday evening – in which he described himself as a “former congressional ‘icon’!” with a fingernail painting emoji adding even more attitude – no longer offered videos for sale. On Tuesday, he wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that he had to clear a “backlog” before he could take new orders.

Mr. Santos is hardly the first disgraced personality to turn to Cameo for money. For a few hundred dollars, Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York mayor under indictment for trying to help overturn the 2020 election, once recited the lyrics of “I am a little teapot.”

OJ Simpson, the former football star who – well, you know – also used Cameo and made videos congratulating people on their anniversaries, birthdays and pregnancies.

And Mr. Santos isn’t the only former politician hoping for success on the platform: Sarah Palin has made so many videos that she higher than her previous salary as governor of Alaska, Earn $211,529 in 2021.

Mr. Santos’s loot probably remained there. He initially set his price at $75 before raising it after his debut on the platform attracted a lot of attention. It’s unclear how many videos he made, but at least eleven were publicly available on Cameo or social media. Neither he nor Cameo immediately responded to requests for comment.

The question came from an unexpected source.

On Monday afternoon, Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania brazenly posted a video that he said he asked Mr. Santos to record for his fellow Democrat, Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, who has been indicted on federal corruption charges. Mr. Fetterman has called on Mr. Menendez to resign.

“I reached out to a seasoned expert in the field to give ‘Bobby from Jersey’ some advice,” said Mr. Fetterman wrote on X. Cameo allows customers to request personalized messages or provide instructions; whether a video creator follows suit is up to them.

Mr. Santos’ guiding principle was for Bobby to follow his playbook: “Stick to your guns, sir, and don’t get bogged down by all the haters out there.”

(Mr. Menendez responded by dismissing Mr. Fetterman as “Mr. Clickbait.”)

The move to capitalize on his celebrity was not surprising to the 35-year-old Santos, who during his brief career in Congress mixed politics with the antics of a millennial social media provocateur.

Stripped of his public office and the $174,000 salary that came with it, Mr. Santos will have to find another way to cover his mounting legal bills. He is awaiting trial on 23 federal crimes.

In many ways, his time at Cameo was also a logical extension of his political career. In the report that prompted his expulsion, House of Representatives ethics investigators said Santos “attempted to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his candidacy for the House of Representatives for his own personal financial gain.”

No longer even nominally bound by ethical guidelines he was already flouting, Mr. Santos apparently sought to capitalize on the fame that made him a fixture on late-night talk shows and “Saturday Night Live,” where he has often been. memorably imitated by Bowen Yang. (Mr. Santos’ attempts at humor have more mixed results.)

Although politicians who leave the stage – whether voluntarily or not – often go quietly, Santos has long avoided silence.

As he left the House, he vowed revenge on the Republicans he believed had betrayed him. Hours after his ouster, he wrote a series of messages about X accusing former colleagues of ethical violations and personal attacks.

But to his paying customers on Monday, Mr. Santos, known for his half-truths, acted as if he was above the fray.

“Just make sure you ignore the haters like I did and everything will be fine,” Mr. Santos said in another video. He signed off with an air kiss and a grin.

Grace Ashford reporting contributed.