A former campaign fundraiser for ex- U.S. Rep. George Santos was sentenced Friday to one year and one day in prison for impersonating a high-ranking congressional aide while raising campaign cash for the disgraced New York Republican.
Sam Miele pleaded guilty in 2023 to a single count of federal wire fraud for his role in the criminal case that led to Santos’ expulsion from office.
The 28-year-old New Jersey native admitted that in 2021 he solicited donations under the name Dan Meyer, then-chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican who went on to serve less than a year as House speaker before leaving Congress in 2023.
Prosecutors said Miele’s impersonation included setting up a dummy email address resembling Meyer’s name while reaching out to over a dozen donors.
Miele also acknowledged he committed access device fraud by charging credit cards without authorization to send money to the campaigns of Santos and other political candidates, and for his own personal use. That fraud totaled about $100,000, prosecutors have said.
Miele faced more than two years in prison but his lawyers, in a court filing ahead of Friday’s hearing, argued that he should be sentenced to probation or house arrest.
They argued that Miele had no prior criminal record, quickly acknowledged his wrongdoing and cooperated with investigators.
His lawyers also cited dozens of letters of support from family and friends, saying he had allowed his ambition to succeed in politics to “overwhelm his good judgment, common sense and the ethical principles.”
“Sam Miele is a young man who made a bad mistake,” they wrote. “But his criminal conduct is not indicative of the person he is. Rather, it represents a complete departure from what has otherwise been a young life marked by integrity, kindness and service to others.”
Prosecutors, in their sentencing memo, recommended a sentence below federal guidelines, which they said called for 27 to 33 months in prison.
Miele, in his plea deal, agreed to pay about $109,000 in restitution, to forfeit another $69,000 and to make a $470,000 payment to a campaign contributor.
Miele was one of two campaign aides to reach a plea deal in the federal probe into Santos’ winning campaign.
Nancy Marks, his former campaign treasurer, pleaded guilty to a fraud conspiracy charge. She faces sentencing in May.
Santos, for his part, is due to be sentenced next month after pleading guilty last August to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, just weeks before he was to stand trial last year.
The 36-year-old admitted he stole multiple people’s credit card numbers and charged them for donations to his campaign, used campaign cash on designer clothing and other personal expenses, falsely collected unemployment benefits while working and lied about his personal wealth in a financial disclosure to Congress.
When he entered his guilty plea, Santos blamed ambition for clouding his judgment.
The then-political unknown gained notoriety for flipping a congressional district that covered a wealthy swath of Queens and Long Island in 2022.
But his fantastical lies about his wealth and background were quickly debunked.
Among other things, Santos lied about having a career at top Wall Street firms and a college degree. He also falsely claimed his mother died in the 9/11 attacks and that his grandparents fled the Holocaust.
Less than a year after taking office, Santos was expelled from the U.S. House, becoming just the sixth ever booted from the chamber.