NEW YORK (AP) — George Santos is defending his recent social media tirade to a federal judge who will be sentencing the disgraced former New York congressman later this week on fraud charges.

In a lengthy letter ahead of the Friday court date, Santos, 36, said he remains “profoundly sorry” for his crimes but protests that the seven-year prison sentence sought by prosecutors as “ridiculous” and overly harsh.

“Every sunrise since that plea has carried the same realization: I did this, me. I am responsible,” wrote the former Republican lawmaker, who pleaded guilty last summer. “But saying I’m sorry doesn’t require me to sit quietly while these prosecutors try to drop an anvil on my head.”

Prosecutors, in a filing last week, argued Santos “remains unrepentant” and has not shown genuine remorse, as his lawyers have claimed in their own filing seeking a lighter, two-year prison stint.

They cited a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter, in which he disparaged the U.S. Department of Justice as a “cabal of pedophiles” and cast himself as a victim of prosecutorial overreach.

Santos, who admitted he deceived donors and stole the identities of nearly a dozen people to fund his congressional campaign, countered that his “colorful” posts are being wrongly “repurposed as a sword against me” by prosecutors.

“Contesting the severity of a proposed sentence is not the same as contesting guilt, and punishing protected speech because it questions punishment should trouble anyone who values fair prosecution over personal vindication,” he wrote.

Santos said calling himself the “scapegoat” in social media posts was in reference to prosecutors claiming he was the “organizer/leader” of his campaign’s financial fraud and warranted a stiffer sentence. He argued his former campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks, who has also pleaded guilty and faces sentencing next month, shares equal part in the blame.

“If I were the criminal mastermind they portray, I would be the clumsiest in modern memory: leaving a trail of screenshots pointing directly back to myself,” he wrote in the Saturday letter.

Santos also pushed back at prosecutors’ claims that he has not made efforts to pay the roughly $580,000 owed as part of his plea deal, saying he’s “liquidated personal assets, reduced my living expenses, and tried as hard as I could to raise some money for restitution.”

He added that he has not asked any of his friends or family to write letters to the court on his behalf, nor did he expect any supporters to attend Friday’s sentencing in Long Island federal court out of embarrassment and shame.

“I don’t want to bring anyone else in my life into this mess,” Santos wrote. “This is mine to deal with and mine alone.”

The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York’s office, which is prosecuting the case, declined to comment.

Santos was elected in 2022 to represent parts of Queens and Long Island but served barely a year before being ousted by his House colleagues.

Santos fabricated much of his life story, leading to questions about how the political unknown had funded his winning campaign.

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Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.