Down Angle Symbol A symbol in the form of an angle pointing downwards. George Santos has sued late-night host Jimmy Kimmel over the use and sourcing of his Cameo videos. Alex Wong/Getty Images, Easterseals/Getty Images
- George Santos said Jimmy Kimmel “misrepresented” himself when he requested Cameo videos.
- The former representative has filed a lawsuit against the TV show host and is seeking at least $750,000 in damages.
- Kimmel submitted several video requests to Santos under false names, which Santos duly complied with.
Former Rep. George Santos has claimed that Jimmy Kimmel deceived him by making videos on Cameo that were used to ridicule him on the late-night TV host's eponymous talk show.
In a civil lawsuit filed Saturday against Kimmel in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the disgraced Republican said Kimmel misrepresented himself to induce Santos to create personalized videos depicting his ” gregarious personality exploited and ridiculed” AP News.
Santos is seeking at least $750,000 in damages for fraud, breach of contract, unjust enrichment and copyright infringement. Walt Disney Co. and ABC were also named as defendants in the lawsuit.
Former Rep. George Santos is surrounded by journalists as he leaves the U.S. Capitol after his congressional colleagues voted to expel him from the House of Representatives on December 1, 2023 in Washington, DC. Drew Angerer/Getty Images
According to the complaint, Kimmel made at least 14 video requests to Santos using fake identities. Five of them appeared in episodes of Jimmy Kimmel! Live” in the “Will Santos Say It?” segment and on the show’s various social media platforms.
According to Rolling Stone, the complaint states that Kimmel “selected the personal use licenses for all of the Cameo Videos with the intent to violate those licenses by broadcasting and commercially exploiting the Cameo Videos on national television.”
In one request, Kimmel asked Santos to congratulate someone on winning a beef competition. Santos duly obliged, and his response, in which he called the feat of consuming six pounds of loose ground beef in less than 30 minutes “amazing and impressive,” appeared on the December 7 episode of Jimmy Kimmel! Live”.
Santos was expelled from the House of Representatives in early December 2023 following multiple fraud allegations and a damning ethics report.
Representatives for Santos, Kimmel, Walt Disney Co. and ABC did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.
Within a week of his expulsion from Congress, Santos began selling videos of himself on Cameo, a website that allows celebrities to record a message to their fans for a fee.
Santos sold videos on the platform for $75 before quickly increasing the price to $150 and then back to $500. As of February 2024, he is still active on the platform and his videos are priced at $277.
According to the lawsuit, Kimmel joked about being sued by Santos during a Dec. 11 episode of his ABC show.
“Could you imagine George Santos suing me for fraud,” Kimmel said at the time. “I mean, how good would that be? It would be like a dream come true. Since I started buying his videos, his prices have increased to as much as $500 each. He should thank me for buying these videos.”