If George Santos Is Suing Jimmy Kimmel for Cameo Embarrassment, He’ll Need To Sue a Lot of Other People Too 

In case you thought you had a busy Presidents’ Day weekend, former Rep. George Santos (R) spent his not only incessantly tweeting at House Republicans for losing his seat last week, but also filing suit against Jimmy Kimmel, ABC, and Walt Disney. Santos is accusing Kimmel of ordering Cameo videos from Santos under false pretenses (aka using 14 different aliases), then using those videos for a segment called “Will Santos Say It?” The suit claims Kimmel is liable for alleged copyright infringement, fraudulent inducement, breach of contract, and unjust enrichment, and demands $750,000 in damages.

“Frankly, Kimmel’s fake requests were funny, but what he did was clear violation of copyright law,” Robert Fantone, an attorney for Santos, said in an email to the Associated Press. In one of the clips Kimmel aired on his show, the Republican grifter congratulates the purported winner of a “beef-eating contest” (???), celebrating their achievement of scarfing down six pounds of loose ground beef in just 30 minutes.

Fantone did not immediately respond to Jezebel’s request for comment. I specifically wanted to discover whether Santos has changed his process for accepting Cameo video requests as a result of Kimmel’s pranks—either by vetting requesters or vetting their stories to assess any potential falsehoods or exaggerations. However, I can’t imagine that would end well for Santos, at least financially. After all, the whole appeal of paying him hundreds of dollars to make a Cameo has been seeing what preposterously insane shit you could get him to say or comment on. In one December clip, he celebrates someone for coming out as a furry. And, in my personal favorite, Santos congratulates a woman for successfully transferring her late husband’s soul to a mannequin: “The whole gang at Cold Stone Creamery loves you, I love you,” he concludes. If he’s going to sue people for requesting silly Cameo videos under false pretenses, he’s going to have to sue, like, a lot of people.

In any case, Santos’ lawsuit is a fun reminder that, above all else, the man’s a grifter. Kimmel paid him for those clips and, like all of Santos’ Cameos that have gone viral online, Kimmel also supplied him with free PR. There clearly isn’t much of a lawsuit here, but true to form, one thing Mr. Santos is going to do is try to get his bag. That, after all, is why Santos is on Cameo in the first place: to cash in on his brief but endlessly viral far-right political career. (He reportedly made more on his first few days on Cameo than his annual six-figure congressional salary.)

Santos was expelled from Congress in December after being charged with nearly two dozen counts connected to alleged wire fraud, money laundering, and identity theft. An investigation by the House Ethics Committee found that Santos illegally used campaign money for OnlyFans subscriptions and Sephora purchases. Now, it looks like he’s moved on to his next get-rich-quick scheme in the form of suing one of the late-night Jimmys.