Former U.S. Rep. George Santos says he was placed in the Special Housing Unit at the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, N.J., after receiving warnings of a potential death threat, according to a column he wrote for a local Nassau paper.
Santos was given an 87-month sentence in April after being convicted on charges of identity theft and wire fraud.
Santos wrote in his column for The South Shore Press that on Aug. 28, he was escorted to the prison administration building after his attorney informed him that an investigative reporter with Project Veritas, an American far right activist group, had reported individuals plotting to kill him.
He said prison officers told him he would be placed in the special housing unit for his own safety.
In the column, Santos described being confined in a 15-by-17-foot cell with a bed, toilet, and sink for six days, with limited access to showers and initially denied daily outdoor time.
He called the conditions “hell on earth” and said he had no phone or visitation access. He later was moved to a larger outdoor cage.
Santos said he was informed that the threat investigation had been turned over to the FBI and that Assistant Warden Noble told him he would remain in the special housing unit for at least 30 days, with no defined end date.
Santos wrote that the situation has left him “tortured every day” and urged that President Donald Trump to intervene.
The Bureau of Prisons and FBI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
