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.

(AP)