Disgraced ex-congressman George Santos is accused of telling a reporter that his exposé on him would “get you a gun in your face.”
Santos, 37, was expelled from Congress in December 2023 and later jailed for fraud, only to walk free in 2025 after President Donald Trump commuted his sentence. He has reinvented himself as an online provocateur on X.
NPR journalist Bobby Allyn says the alleged threat came in a furious phone call from a blocked number, a day after he revealed that the Justice Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission had opened investigations into Santos’s trading on the prediction market Kalshi. The federal scrutiny was first reported by NPR.
The investigations center on bets Santos appears to have placed against his own appearance at Trump’s State of the Union address in February—even as he posted a gushing video telling followers how thrilled he was to attend, Allyn wrote. Kalshi froze his account and referred the matter to federal authorities.
When Allyn picked up, Santos was “boiling with rage,” the reporter wrote. Santos insisted his lawyers had been calling the DOJ all day and could find no investigation. Asked to name those attorneys, he refused, snapping that he was “George f--king Santos, of course I have a legal team.”
Then, according to Allyn, came the line that took him aback: “This story is going to get you a gun in your face.” Asked what he meant, Santos allegedly replied: “You know what I mean.”
Santos denies saying any such thing. After Allyn texted to confirm the call, Santos fired back in capitals that he “NEVER” said the story would get a gun in his face—claiming he said it would “blow up in your face.” He called the reporter “an insane person” and “a clown.”
He then posted on X to deny the episode entirely, insisting he had never been threatening or aggressive toward reporters. “Sassy? Sure but aggressive and threatening? NEVER!” he wrote.
The fallout has continued to mount. The Associated Press reported that rival prediction market Polymarket, which had paid Santos to promote its markets, has cut ties with him.
He is now hawking 55 percent off his Cameo videos, meaning $150 buys a personalized clip of him saying almost anything—though, as Allyn noted dryly, there is no guarantee he won’t later deny it.
The Daily Beast has contacted George Santos and NPR for comment.
