Former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) has filed a lawsuit against late night host Jimmy Kimmel on Saturday over prank Cameo videos used in a segment of his talk show.
Shortly after being ousted from Congress in December, Santos began offering to record personalized video messages via the online service Cameo for $500 per video — inspiring a humorous prank for Kimmel’s talk show.
In a December episode of his talk show, Kimmel mocked the disgraced congressman with a segment called “Will Santos Say It?” in which Kimmel paid for Cameo videos under fake names and requested that Santos read out absurd messages.
The video requests featured made-up stories, including one from a woman asking Santos to congratulate her on successfully cloning her dog named Adolf.
The lawsuit, first reported by the New York Post and obtained by HuffPost on Saturday, alleges that Kimmel used “deceitful tactics” and created fake profiles to submit at least 14 requests for Cameo videos.
“Comedy is wonderful, until you violate someone’s rights, then you get sued,” Robert Fantone, an attorney at the law firm representing Santos, said in a statement sent to HuffPost.
Kimmel’s representatives did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Santos, who is suing Kimmel for copyright infringement, fraud, breach of contract and unjust enrichment, is now seeking at least $750,000 in damages through the lawsuit.
That’s a significant leap from the $20,000 he originally threatened to sue Kimmel over when their legal standoff began in December. Kimmel doubled down, airing more of the videos he tricked Santos into recording and laughing off the payment demand.
“Can you imagine if I get sued by George Santos for fraud?” Kimmel joked on his Dec. 11 show. “I mean, how good would that be? It would be like a dream come true.”
A day later, Santos’ lawyer sent Kimmel a cease and desist letter and demanded that the videos be removed from social media accounts associated with the talk show.
Santos, who took office in January 2023, has admitted to lying on his resume several times and spreading other false narratives about himself.
The damning investigation from the House Ethics Committee that led to Santos’ expulsion exposed even more of his lies, notably that he spent thousands of dollars of campaign funds on an OnlyFans subscription and Botox treatments, among other personal expenses.
The panel also found that Santos had faked donations to his campaign to persuade donors to give him more money.
