George Santos Pleads Guilty in Fraud Case
Serial liar and former Republican congressman George Santos is pleaded guilty to multiple counts in court on Monday afternoon. Santos, who was expelled from the House of Representatives in December, is facing 23 felony charges, which include identity theft, wire fraud, money laundering, and false statements on financial disclosure forms.
Santos was indicted on the charges last October. Prosecutors claim Santos spent donations to his 2022 campaign on non-campaign expenses including OnlyFans, Sephora, Hermès, spas, and Botox. They also say he committed identity theft by using donors’ credit cards without their knowledge.
“Santos falsely inflated the campaign’s reported receipts with non-existent loans and contributions that were either fabricated or stolen,” United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said in October.
An anonymous source told the Associated Press on Monday that Santos would plead guilty.
The former congressman’s lies touch on nearly every aspect of his life, including his career, his education, and his family background. He falsely claimed that his grandparents survived the Holocaust and that his mother survived the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in New York City. A Navy veteran accused him of refusing to give him funds from a GoFundMe campaign for his dying service dog.
In 2022, Santos admitted that he had lied about his work history and whether he had graduated from college. “My sins here are embellishing my resume. I’m sorry,” he told the New York Post. He also addressed his family’s religion. “I never claimed to be Jewish,” he said. “I am Catholic. Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I was ‘Jew-ish.’”
Santos faced skepticism around his fiances even before his surprising election to represent parts of Long Island and Queens in 2022. Once in office, he refused to resign even after he was indicted on federal charges. House Republicans didn’t seem very concerned that one of their colleagues had been criminally charged, but ultimately voted to expel him after a House Ethics Committee report found “substantial evidence” of his crimes. Santos called the report “slanderous.” Around the same time, Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) said that Santos had charged his and his mother’s credit cards without their knowledge. In March, Santos said he would run for Congress again.
Santos told CBS 2 in December that he had a “long road of redemption ahead” in which he would acknowledge his mistakes. He added: “I think everybody should be afraid of going to jail, it’s not a pretty place and I definitely want to work very hard to avoid that as best as possible.”
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