photo of several 100 dollar bills by Mackenzie Marco on Unsplash
Former U.S. Rep. George Santos is expected to plead guilty to multiple counts in his federal fraud case – sources tell Scripps News, according to KSBY.com.
Santos, a Republican from New York, is expected to enter the plea at a court hearing planned for Monday on Long Island, an anonymous source told The Associated Press. The source could not publicly discuss details of the plea.
The court hearing was scheduled for Monday afternoon after prosecutors and Santos’ lawyers jointly requested one on Friday. They also sought and received a delay in certain pre-trial deadlines.
The news comes just weeks before jury selection was set to begin on Sept. 9. Santos has previously pleaded not guilty to a range of financial crimes, including to lying to Congress about his wealth, collecting unemployment benefits while actually working and using campaign contributions to pay for personal expenses such as designer clothing.
Politico reported that former Rep. George Santos, who was expelled from the House last year amidst a fantastical flood of fraud investigations, is expected to offer guilty pleas Monday as part of a deal to resolve the wide-ranging federal indictment he faces, a person familiar with the case said.
Santos is set to appear Monday afternoon in federal court in eastern Long Island at what U.S. District Court Judge Jonna Seybert set as a pretrial hearing. However, there are plans to use the session to allow the former lawmaker to change his plea, according to a person who was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive details of the case that are not yet public.
According to Politico, Santos, 36, was facing 23 federal charges, including wire fraud, lying in Federal Election Commission reports and lying in House financial disclosure. Some of the charges stemmed from his alleged diversion of campaign funds to cover personal expenses including plastic surgery and Botox injections.
Santos was elected to represent New York’s 3rd Congressional District in 2022, but before he was sworn in, reports began to emerge that he fabricated key details in his resume. Allegations of more serious fraud and business misconduct followed, triggering a House Ethics Committee investigation and numerous calls for him to resign.
Santos refused to resign and was expelled last December by a vote of 311 to 114.
NBC News reported the disgraced former lawmaker faces a 23-count superseding indictment in the Eastern District of New York, including charges of wire fraud aggravated identity theft and making materials false statements to the Federal Election Commission.
According to NBC News, the superseding indictment is in addition to a 13-count federal indictment on charges of wire fraud, money laundering, and theft of public funds that Santos was hit with in May 2023.
Is anyone surprised by this? Generally speaking, people who money launder, commit fraud, and other sketchy tactics might think they are above the law and can do anything they want to. Looks like George Santos is about to face reality.