The march of George Santos, the Republican congressman from New York who is being pilloried for fabricating much of his resume, ended Wednesday in a federal court in New York, where he faces seven counts of electronic fraud, three of them money laundering, one for stealing public funds and two others for making false statements to the United States House of Representatives. Santos, who pleaded not guilty to all 13 charges and was released on $500,000 bail, was elected MP in November’s midterm elections.
After the first lies came out at the end of December – the composition of certain aspects of his academic career and his professional experience – the cascade of inventions grew like a snowball over his life, which did not stop him from swearing in January as a representative of the wealthy Long County Iceland on Capitol Hill. Despite admitting, surrounded by media revelations, that he had thickened some parts of his curriculum, he insisted on not stepping down from the post of deputy, merely resigning from his two associated House committees to see himself integrate.
At the end of April he was still in the Republican caucus at a celebratory joint congress session with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol. Although by then he was already a nuisance in his own party, whose members had urged him to resign his seat, Santos proudly wore the badges identifying congressmen on his lapels. Several fellow believers have joined the chorus calling for his resignation this Wednesday, although the law allows Santos to remain in his seat even if indicted, and he reiterated today that he has no intention of stepping down. However, their movements are restricted to New York and Washington, with an obligation to obtain permission to move, as ordered by the judge in the case.
The information broadcaster CNN reported on Tuesday afternoon that the federal prosecutor’s office had indicted the 34-year-old Santos without naming the charges. Contacted by phone by an Associated Press journalist, the Republican replied, “This is new to me. You’re the first to ask me about it.” That Wednesday, the congressman turned himself in and went on trial while the Attorney for the Eastern District of New York made public the possible crimes he is accused of. Both the Justice Department and the FBI have cooperated in investigating the alleged violation of campaign rules and federal conflict of interest laws.
Possible prison sentence
In addition to these serious crimes from an institutional and political perspective, which could cost him a 20-year prison sentence if convicted, Santos are being dogged by bizarre, not to say ridiculous, allegations: he stole money raised in a social campaign Media for Iraq War Veteran’s Dying Dog; running a credit card fraud scheme, or even stealing a dog from an Amish dairy farm. Not glamorous for a supposedly brilliant life, thanks to catch-up degrees from New York University and Baruch College, as well as fake work experience at Wall Street giants Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. Two stories that fit the image of a man who is the victim of “megalomania,” according to the description given to him by a roommate.
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In addition, he boasted of false Jewish ancestry linked to the Holocaust, allegedly from his grandparents and from a mother who was a 9/11 victim when her mother wasn’t even in New York that day in 2001 was. Coincidentally, many voters in his district are descendants of Holocaust victims, prompting journalist Andrew Silverstein to investigate the veracity of his affiliation. Silverstein uncovered the scam before it was picked up by the New York Times in late December and the untruths immediately escalated into a major political scandal. Santos, who is openly gay, also angered the LGTBIQ community for hiding that he was in a marriage of convenience to a woman until 2019.
Santos, whose election helped in part to break traditional Democratic rule in New York, was one of the stars invited to a February rally of hard-line Republicans in New York that brought together notorious anti-Semites and white supremacists. His career as representative of this Republican outpost in a traditionally Democratic state seemed to be a bright one.
Now that Santos is in the hands of the judiciary, the Republican Party at least contains the oil stain that threatened to spread amid the campaign for the 2024 presidential election, even if its top-ranked candidate, Donald Trump, also faces legal setbacks.
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