George Santos Is Suing Jimmy Kimmel for Ridiculing His “Gregarious Personality”

Disgraced former New York Representative George Santos is suing Jimmy Kimmel, alleging the late-night host broke the law by generating fake requests on the celebrity video app Cameo.

The suit, filed in federal court in New York on Saturday, names the host, ABC, and Walt Disney Co. as defendants. It alleges copyright infringement, fraudulent inducement, breach of contract, and unjust enrichment.

“If you don’t stand up for yourself, you will always lose! That’s what I’m doing with this lawsuit. I’m standing my ground and fighting to uphold my legal rights,” Santos posted on X, formerly Twitter, Saturday night. “Jimmy boy thought he could use fraudulent means to violate my copyrights, and now he’s going to face the consequences. It’s really that simple. My legal case is unassailable, there’s no question I am in the right.”

The suit stems from a new line of work Santos stumbled into after Congress expelled him in early December, the result of a damning ethics investigation that uncovered widespread misuse of campaign funds, including on trips to casinos, OnlyFans subscriptions, luxury goods, and Botox.

Soon after his expulsion, Santos had set up an account on Cameo, which allows users to pay celebrities for short custom videos. After just two days, he claimed to have lined up enough videos to surpass his $174,000 congressional annual salary. The platform’s founder and CEO, Steven Galanis, told Semafor that Santos would “be an absolute whale,” and that his debut was “putting numbers up” to rival those of Sarah Jessica Parker and Bon Jovi.

The lawsuit alleges that at least fourteen requests Santos received in early December came from fake accounts using “phony names and narratives” belonging to Kimmel. Those requests included scripts for Santos to send congratulatory messages to one user for cloning a schnauzer named Adolf and another for eating “six pounds of ground beef in under 30 minutes.” The comic played five videos of the fabulist on a show segment titled, “Will Santos Say It?”

A lawyer for Santos previously sent Kimmel a cease-and-desist letter on December 12, calling the host a “sneaky little trickster.”

In the suit, Santos accuses Kimmel of violating the app’s terms of service and Santos’ copyright. Kimmel, the suit adds, paid for the videos “for the sole purpose of capitalizing on and ridiculing [Santos’] gregarious personality.” The former congressman is seeking $750,000 in damages.

“Frankly, Kimmel’s fake requests were funny, but what he did was a clear violation of copyright law,” a Santos attorney, Robert Fantone, said in an email to news outlets.

According to the lawsuit, Kimmel joked about the possibility of facing legal action on one of the segments.

“Could you imagine if I get sued by George Santos for a fraud,” Kimmel said in early December. “I mean, how good would that be? It would be like a dream come true. So since I started buying his videos, his rates went way up to $500 a piece. He should be thanking me for buying these videos.”

“Jimmy, sorry that my Christmas gift to you came late, but here’s to making wishes come true,” Santos told The New York Post, which reported the news of the suit on Saturday. “I hope you enjoy reading your lawsuit for fraud that you’ve been looking forward to.”