Konstantinos Kosta Diamantis, a longtime Democratic power player in Connecticuts budget and school-construction apparatus, has vanished to Greece rather than face a federal judge for sentencing on a sweeping corruption conviction.
According to the Gateway Pundit, Diamantis a former deputy budget director under Democrat Gov. Ned Lamont, ex-director of the states school-construction grant office, and a former Democratic state representative failed to appear Thursday in federal court in Bridgeport after quietly slipping out of the country on a route prosecutors described as Florida to the Bahamas by boat, then a flight to London, then Greece. He had been convicted last October on 21 counts, including extortion, bribery, conspiracy, and lying to the FBI, and federal prosecutors had urged U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill to impose a sentence of 10 to 12 years in prison.
Diamantis, who faced more than a decade behind bars, now has a new sentencing date of September 30, which the court has said will proceed with or without him in the room. His own lawyer, defense attorney Norman Pattis, bluntly told the court that his client is not coming back.
The escape unfolded despite repeated warnings from prosecutors that Diamantis was a textbook flight risk, having secured Greek citizenship and a Greek passport while the case was pending and repeatedly petitioning the court for permission to travel to Greece. Diamantis had been free on a $500,000 bond, and Gov. Lamont later claimed he was shocked the man was not wearing an ankle bracelet a protest that arrived only after the damage was done.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Francis told the court that Diamantis drove to Florida, hired a boat to Nassau in the Bahamas, and then boarded a flight to London before continuing on to Greece. Pattis said his client called him Wednesday evening around 6:30 p.m., announcing he was already in Greece and would not appear for sentencing.
Pattis added that Diamantis family was kept in the dark about the escape plan, with his daughter reportedly en route to Bridgeport when she learned he had fled. Greece and the United States maintain an extradition treaty, but Greek authorities generally refuse to surrender their own nationals, and Diamantis dual citizenship appears central to his strategy.
Before disappearing, Diamantis sent Pattis a 10-page email that the attorney shared with the court and the press. In that message, the convicted Democrat accused Lamont and former President Joe Biden of weaponizing the Justice Department and insisted he had done nothing wrong.
He claimed the prosecution had destroyed his life, saying he lost his home, his childrens home, his car, his job, his law license, his honor, and his pride. The injustice that has occurred to me and my family by political weaponization is beyond rational belief, Diamantis wrote.
Diamantis further alleged that Lamont used the power of his office and his powerful friendship with President Biden to create an insular system of justice designed to shield the governor and his family from scrutiny. He denounced the investigation as a politically insulated script written by Lamont, Connecticut DOJ and Connecticut tight knit legal aristocracy.
Positioning himself as a victim of partisan lawfare, Diamantis said he wants President Donald Trump and federal prosecutors in Washington to review his case file, and he had already applied for a presidential pardon. Pattis remarked that the email read as though it were crafted for that very audience, underscoring how deeply the scandal now intersects with the broader national debate over politicized prosecutions and the need for equal justice under the law.
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