A new house for Santos

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George Santos talks to reporters as he leaves federal court in... — George Santos talks to reporters as he leaves federal court in Central Islip in August. Credit: Jeff Bachner

Updated July 10, 2025 5:40 pm

Daily Point

Expelled CD3 rep doesn’t want to go to prison

Just weeks away from getting locked up for more than 7 years, George Santos is still trying to push for a pardon or clemency.

The "major roadblock," said Santos, who was expelled from his CD3 seat in 2023, is House Speaker Mike Johnson. Santos claims Johnson is holding up any effort to gain one of those get-out-of-jail cards that President Donald Trump dispenses regularly — and Santos is blaming local Nassau politics. Santos alleges that polling by Nassau GOP chair Joseph Cairo and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman show any favoritism to the expelled representative would hurt local candidates this year and next when the House is up for grabs.

"I’m nothing but a statistic in a poll," Santos told The Point. "It’s being politicized. Polling locally suggests it would wipe us out."

A Cairo spokesman declined to comment. A Blakeman spokesman did not return requests for comment. While it might make sense that pardoning Santos wouldn’t help Republicans in local races this year or next, The Point was unable to find or confirm the existence of any polling that dealt with a Santos pardon or clemency request.

Santos also suggested on social media this week that key House members, including Reps. Nick LaLota and Andrew Garbarino, might have asked President Donald Trump to hold back any opportunity for clemency.

Shortly after Santos was elected to the House, it became clear that he had lied about key parts of his resume and background. His legal troubles stemmed from multiple other schemes, from filing fraudulent unemployment benefits and fundraising reports to lying on congressional financial disclosure forms and stealing from campaign contributors. Last summer, Santos pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. In April, he was sentenced.

Last week, Santos told The Point that his initial request was for clemency, which could keep him out of prison, citing that he supports his autistic niece. He said the 87-month sentence he received is "insane," but added that he’s "not a choir boy" and made "bad choices."

But even as he was exploring the reasons behind his lack of pardon or clemency, Santos is expressing concerns about what could happen to him once in prison.

"I’m heading to prison, folks, and I need you to hear this loud and clear," Santos wrote on X. "I’m not suicidal. I’m not depressed. I have no intentions of harming myself ... if something does happen, there’s no confusion. I did NOT kill myself."

Santos is still holding out hope for a last-minute reprieve. "Look, I’ve seen some people coming down to the wire, getting a pardon or clemency the day before," Santos said in the interview, citing former Virginia sheriff Scott Jenkins, who was pardoned just before he was supposed to go to prison after being found guilty of bribery.

Meanwhile, Santos continues to post videos to Cameo, where he’s ranked second on the site’s "top talent" leaderboard.

But Santos also told The Point that he is preparing for the possibility that he’ll have to serve his prison term, adding that he’s "going to call it out for what it is."

That became clear last week, when Santos first took to X to blame Johnson for "stonewalling my ability to get a pardon using the same excuses he used for my expulsion — Polling."

At another point, Santos wrote: "To those stepping on my neck know this … What comes around goes around."

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

Data Point

Long Island building permits see steep decline in 25 years

Long Island, once the model for suburban housing, is building fewer houses today than it did 25 years ago.

In the year 2000, builders obtained permits to construct 4,845 privately owned residential structures that would have yielded 6,156 units on Long Island, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s building permits survey. There were 876 permits sought to build 1,535 units in Nassau and more than 3,900 permits to build 4,621 units in Suffolk.

Compare that with 2024, when builders sought permits for a total of 1,818 privately owned residential structures, less than half from the year 2000, to construct 2,190 units. Of those building permits, 666 were obtained to build 824 units in Nassau County and 1,152 permits to build 1,366 units in Suffolk. Each residential structure requires one building permit irrespective of the number of units it will include.

Analyzing building permits data is the most reliable way of measuring housing construction at the county level. These are approvals given by local jurisdictions, such as towns, villages or the county, that allow a residential construction project to proceed. A boom in permits implies builders see potential growth in the neighborhood while a decline in building permits is a sign of bottlenecks in the housing supply chain. Each residential structure could take several months or years to build, depending on the scale of the project.

For the interactive version of this chart, including data on 2-unit and 3-4 unit housing structures and more analysis of housing trends, click here.