While much media coverage has naturally focused on convicted sex offender Donald Trump, yesterday federal prosecutors criminally charged congressman George Santos. He turned himself in at a federal courthouse in Manhattan this morning and was arrested.
The congressman was probably treated the same as any other criminal defendant, a person familiar with the matter said. That would involve the congressman being fingerprinted and getting his mugshot taken, and sitting for a preliminary interview before being arraigned.
…The US justice department unsealed a 13-count indictment: seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public money and two counts of making false statements in reports to the House of Representatives.
Santos faces a maximum sentence of 20 years on the top count, the US attorney’s office for the eastern district of New York said. He will not have to relinquish his congressional seat, though members sentenced to at least two years cannot vote or be on committees.
“The allegations in the indictment charge Santos with relying on repeated dishonesty and deception to ascend to the halls of Congress and enrich himself,” the US attorney Breon Peace said in a statement.
The indictment outlined three alleged fraudulent schemes, starting with a political contributions scheme in which Santos and an unnamed Queens-based consultant are alleged to have induced donors to give money to Santos’s company, which he is alleged to have spent on luxury designer goods and to pay debts.
The second alleged scheme involved unemployment benefits fraud during the Covid pandemic, when Santos applied for government assistance though he was employed and receiving a $120,000 salary from an investment firm in Florida.
The third alleged scheme involved Santos misleading the House about his financial situation, overstating a source of income without disclosing his salary in May 2020, during his first, unsuccessful run for Congress, then making false statements in September 2022 during his victorious run.
The false information prosecutors say Santos included in his second financial disclosure appears particularly notable because of the significant amounts of money at stake and the bizarre circumstances in which they were recorded.
Prosecutors alleged that Santos certified that he earned a $750,000 salary and between $1m and $5m in dividends from his company, the Devolder Organization, and claimed to have $100,000 to $250,000 in a checking account and between $1m and $5m in a savings account – none of which was true.
All in all, this has been a bad week for liars and sex abusers. And it’s only Wednesday.
Would the honest, and non-delusional*, GOP politicians please stand up?
* I realized that MTG is probably honest. But delusional.
As I told a Navy buddy this afternoon, I am in a very bad place when I realize that I’m feeling nostalgic for the days of Ronald Wilson Reagan.
~~sigh~~
…Santos and an unnamed Queens-based consultant are alleged to have induced donors to give money to Santos’s company, which he is alleged to have spent on luxury designer goods and to pay debts.
Well, at least he paid his debts. That’s more than Trump can say.
I was trying to see why the charges and then realized they were from before he was elected.
Serial liar BoJo- who got tens if thousands of elderly killed by covid- is still at large. And so are his corrupt enablers.
A couple of days ago I heard one of the best podcasts I’ve ever listened to. Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre Podcast (RHLSTP), episode 415, with Joe Lycett, the artist formerly known as Hugo Boss. There’s a part about halfway in where his normal garrulous fluency starts to break down as he explains why he’s still so fucking angry at BoJo et al. It’s a quality listen all the way through, but that bit is genuinely moving. I recommend getting it however you get your podcasts.