George Santos pleads not guilty to 13 charges, including wire fraud and theft
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George Santos, the New York congressman who rose to prominence for a string of exaggerations, lies, and irregularities related to his personal background and campaign finances, pleaded not guilty after being hit with a series of federal charges.
He told the press after exiting the courthouse on Wednesday that the probe is a “witch hunt” and that he’s planning to run for reelection. Mr Santos surrendered to the authorities and was taken into custody at a federal courthouse.
He was released on a $500,000 bond ahead of his next court appearance on 30 June.
Mr Santos has been charged with seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives.
Utah GOP Senator Mitt Romney led the calls for him to go, saying, “He has demonstrated by his untruthfulness that he should not be in the United States Congress — perhaps should not even be on the public streets”.
VIDEO: George Santos pleads not guilty to 13 charges, including wire fraud and theft
George Santos and the fascinating psychology of compulsive liars
Anyone who’s taken a passing look at the news lately knows it’s been a bad week for George Santos. Charged with crimes ranging from false statements to fraud on Wednesday, the former golden boy of the Republican Party may be about to end his career in a spectacular flame-out even his most ardent detractors couldn’t have predicted.
When the 34-year-old representative from New York’s 3rd congressional district flipped the seat in the November midterms, it was celebrated by Republicans as a rare and significant victory. This was a once-safe Democratic seat, where people voted for Joe Biden by a double-digit margin in 2020. How did Santos do it? As his house of cards comes tumbling down, the answer seems to be: By fictionalizing himself into the perfect candidate.
Aside from the financial and legal crimes he’s now been charged with, Santos also stands accused of lying about the entire contents of his résumé, including where he went to college, and even where he went to high school; whether he is married to a man or a woman (he spoke of a husband in his campaign bio, but records only appear to show a marriage and divorce to a woman); how his mother died (not in 9/11, it turns out); whether his grandmother was in the Holocaust and indeed whether any of his family is actually Jewish (it appears they are all actually Brazilian Catholics.) An indictment suggests he allegedly lied about being unemployed in order to collect fraudulent benefits, and spent “thousands of dollars [in campaign funds solicited from the public] on personal expenses, including luxury designer clothing and credit card payments”. He even seems to have claimed he was running an imaginary animal charity. These alleged lies range from the very serious to the comically absurd, from the personal to the professional, and from the clearly self-serving to the head-scratchingly strange. There is a feeling of compulsion to them.
Read more:
From resume lies to criminal charges: A timeline of George Santos’ many scandals
On Wednesday 10 May, the embattled congressman was arrested on a string of 13 federal criminal charges.
Mr Santos was charged with seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives, according to the indictment.
He surrendered to authorities at a federal court on Long Island.
Federal prosecutors accused Mr Santos of lying on financial disclosure forms he filed to the House when he became a candidate. The first count alleges that he overstated his income from one job and failed to disclose income from another. The second alleges that he lied about his earnings from his company, the Devolder Organization.
Prosecutors also allege that Mr Santos fraudulently used donations to his political campaign for his own benefit, spending “thousands of dollars of the solicited funds on personal expenses, including luxury designer clothing and credit card payments.”
Mr Santos is also accused of an unemployment insurance fraud scheme before his successful congressional campaign in which he applied for government assistance in New York while still employed by a Florida-based investment firm.
The arrest marks the latest in a growing number of scandals circling Mr Santos.
The saga began even before he was sworn-in on the 118th Congress.
Dogged by surely one of the oddest scandals to hit American politics in the last few years, Mr Santos was facing calls for his expulsion and resignation even before he was seated as representative for New York’s 3rd Congressional District.
Let’s take a look back at how this scandal evolved, from the beginning to now:
George Santos: Every lie disgraced Republican Congressman has been accused of making
It can be difficult keeping up with the list of fictions that George Santos has been accused of telling, admitted telling, or merely been caught spinning red-handed following a contradictory statement.
But, do not fret: The Independent is here, and we’re keeping track of the whole list of lies even as it continues to grow — both in number and in the sheer scale of the humiliation that it presents for not just Mr Santos, who remains adamant that he will serve two years in office as representative for New York’s third district, but for the Republican House caucus as a whole.
For months now, home state Republicans and Democrats alike called for his resignation from Congress while major conservative groups vowed not to work with him.
Still, he found a niche for himself among the GOP’s far-right Maga caucus, among fellows like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz.
On Wednesday 11 January, New York Republicans called on Mr Santos to resign, saying that he “disgraced the House of Representatives”. Mr Santos, meanwhile, held firm, telling reporters that he “will not” step down.
Then, on 31 January, Mr Santos announced he was stepping down from his committee assignments following a meeting with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
But, things really took a turn on 9 May, when Mr Santos was arrested and hit with 13 federal charges from the Justice Department.
The embattled congressman was charged with seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives.
He was arrested after surrendering to authorities at a federal court on Long Island the following morning (10 May).
So, with scrutiny continuing to mount on Mr Santos, let’s dive in to every fabrication, fiction, lie, mistruth, and “embellishment” that he has admitted to telling or been caught spreading by journalists and others (so far):
Separating fact from the many, fabulous fabrications of George Santos
He surrendered to federal law enforcement and was taken to the Eastern District of New York federal courthouse in Central Islip, on Long Island, where he pleaded not guilty in a brief court appearance.
In 2022, Mr Santos was elected as the Republican Party’s first openly gay, non-incumbent member of Congress, and touted himself as a living embodiment of the American dream.
Here’s what we know about George Anthony Devolder Santos:
Santos’s travel limited as part of bond agreement
According to his bond agreement, Mr Santos will be allowed to travel to New York City, Long Island, and Washington, DC.
But he will have to get permission from pretrial services if he wants to travel anywhere else in the continental US, according to CNN.
He also had to hand over his passport to the federal authorities, meaning that he won’t be able to go abroad.
Santos’ drag show past exposed
The accusation emerged in January when the veteran Brazilian drag performer Eula Rochard, 58, told Reuters that she had first encountered the individual she alleged was Mr Santos in 2005 at the first gay pride parade held in Niteroi, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro, saying she also remembered seeing him compete in a drag pageant in the same city three years later, much more flamboyantly attired on the second occasion.
“He’s changed a lot, but he was always a liar,” Ms Rochard said. “He was always such a dreamer.”
She said she came forward to make her allegation against Mr Santos after spotting him on television, excitedly telling her friends and then reacting to their disbelief by digging out an old photograph she insisted showed the pair of them together in costume, later posting it on Instagram.
In an interview with Maria Kabas of The Handbasket on Substack, Ms Rochard said: “I think I met him when he was around 16 or 17 years old… He used to hang out in my house while his mom was playing Bingo.
“The picture was taken in 2008 at the Pride Parade at Icarai Beach in Niteroi. George had disappeared for a little while, and then returned to Brazil with a lot of money, and that was about the same time when the picture was taken.”
Ms Rochard added that Mr Santos “did not have what it takes to be a professional” as a drag performer, adding that he “used to create stories, usually involving money – like that his dad was rich”.
False statements to House of Reps: two counts of making false statements
The indictment claims Mr Santos “knowingly and willfully” made false statements on his personal financial disclosure reports to the Clerk of the House which was delivered to the House Committee on Ethics.
In one count, federal prosecutors allege Mr Santos overstated the amount of money he made from a single source in May 2020 as $55,000 when he actually earned $27,555 from one company and $25,403 in income from an investment firm.
The other count alleges Mr Santos falsely reported the amount of money he made from 2021 until the filing date in September 2022.
Mr Santos claimed on his personal financial report he earned $750,000 from the Devolder Organization LLC, had unearned dividends from the company of $1m to $5m, owned a checking account with $100,000 to $250,000 and owned a savings account with $1m to $5m.
The indictment does not provide detail as to what the actual amounts were but says the reported amounts were untruthful.
It also says Mr Santos failed to report the $28,107 he made from an investment firm nor the unemployment insurance benefits he received from New York.
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2023-05-10 22:00:23Z
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