Ousted Rep. George Santos Sues Jimmy Kimmel Over Cameo Video Prank

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