U.S. Rep. George Santos (R-NY) returns to a House Republican caucus assembly on the Longworth House Office Building on October 13, 2023 in Washington, DC.
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Republican Rep. George Santos of New York on Friday pleaded not guilty to new criminal wire fraud and identity theft charges that have been added to his ongoing federal theft and cash laundering case.
Santos’ trial is scheduled to start Sept. 9, 2024, a federal choose dominated at his transient arraignment listening to in U.S. District Court in Long Island.
The 10 new felony counts accuse the embattled freshman lawmaker of submitting false marketing campaign finance reviews and charging his marketing campaign donors’ bank cards with out their permission.
Santos, 35, had hinted he would plead not guilty to these charges in a social media post a day earlier. “I’m entitled to due course of and not a predetermined consequence as some are in search of,” he wrote.
Santos additionally repeated his promise not to resign from workplace, ignoring a bipartisan group of state and federal lawmakers who’ve been calling on him to step down since earlier than he was sworn into Congress in January.
A lawyer for Santos declined CNBC’s request for remark.
Santos has admitted to mendacity about his employment and schooling historical past throughout his marketing campaign, and has additionally since been linked to quite a few different scandals. But he has denied legal wrongdoing.
In May, federal prosecutors filed a 13-count indictment accusing Santos of defrauding supporters of his congressional marketing campaign by soliciting contributions that he then used for his private bills, together with designer garments and bank card funds.
He was additionally charged with fraudulently acquiring greater than $24,000 in unemployment advantages, and with reporting false revenue and asset knowledge on congressional disclosure kinds.
The new, superseding indictment filed Oct. 10 described two new legal schemes.
“Santos is charged with stealing folks’s identities and making charges on his personal donors’ bank cards with out their authorization, mendacity to the [Federal Election Commission] and, by extension, the general public in regards to the monetary state of his marketing campaign,” a U.S. lawyer mentioned in a press launch asserting the new indictment.
“Santos falsely inflated the marketing campaign’s reported receipts with non-existent loans and contributions that have been both fabricated or stolen,” the prosecutor added.
The superseding indictment adopted the guilty plea of Santos’ former marketing campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks. She pleaded guilty on Oct. 5 to conspiring with a congressional candidate to commit wire fraud, amongst different charges.
Marks is prominently featured within the newest charges towards Santos.
In mid-May, Santos pleaded not guilty to the charges in his unique indictment, essentially the most severe of which carry 20-year most jail sentences.
In August, Samuel Miele, a former Santos fundraiser, was charged with impersonating a high aide to former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy throughout telephone calls with potential donors.
Miele’s attorneys are in negotiations with federal prosecutors a couple of potential plea deal.
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