George Santos, who spun lies about his life into an 11-month stint in Congress, pleaded responsible Monday to wire fraud and aggravated identification theft in a case that led to his expulsion from workplace and the admission that he’d allowed ambition to cloud his judgment.
The previous consultant, 36, is more likely to spend at the very least six years in jail and owes greater than $370,000 in restitution. His responsible plea in federal court docket on Lengthy Island got here weeks earlier than the case was to go to trial. He’s to stay free on bond till he’s sentenced on Feb. 7.
“I betrayed the belief of my constituents and supporters. I deeply remorse my conduct,” the New York Republican stated, his voice trembling as he entered the plea.
Santos — elected in 2022 after bandying falsehoods about his wealth and background, together with a lie that his mom perished within the 9/11 assaults — advised reporters exterior court docket that his political ambitions had led him “to make choices that had been unethical.”
“Pleading responsible is a step I by no means imagined I’d take, however it’s a needed one as a result of it’s the proper factor to do,” Santos stated. “It’s not solely a recognition of my misrepresentation to others, however extra profoundly, it’s my very own recognition of the lies I advised myself over these previous years.”
U.S. Lawyer Breon Peace stated that in pleading responsible, Santos had advised the reality “after years of telling lies.”
“And that fact is he’s a legal,” Peace stated.
Santos was indicted on felony prices that he stole from political donors, used marketing campaign contributions to pay for private bills, lied to Congress about his wealth and picked up unemployment advantages whereas really working.
Peace additionally stated that along with the crimes Santos pleaded responsible to, he additionally admitted to “a litany of different crimes for which the court docket will maintain him accountable at sentencing.”
Amongst them: admitting that he stole a number of folks’s bank card numbers and charged them for his marketing campaign, that he tricked donors into giving cash to a bogus nonprofit and used the money to purchase designer clothes, and that he fabricated his private wealth in a monetary disclosure report he submitted to Congress.
Santos was expelled from the U.S. House after an ethics investigation discovered “overwhelming proof” he had damaged the regulation and exploited his public place for his personal revenue.
The case has been set for trial in early September. If that had occurred, federal prosecutors stated Monday that they had been ready to name some 40 witnesses, together with members of Santos’ marketing campaign, employers and members of the family.
Santos was as soon as touted as a rising political star after he flipped the suburban district that covers the prosperous North Shore of Lengthy Island and a slice of the New York Metropolis borough of Queens in 2022.
However his life story started unraveling even earlier than he was sworn into workplace. On the time, stories emerged that he had lied about having a profession at prime Wall Road companies and a university diploma together with different questions surrounding his biography.
New questions then emerged about his marketing campaign funds.
He was first indicted on federal prices in Might 2023, however refused to resign from workplace.
Santos had beforehand maintained his innocence, although he stated in an interview in December {that a} plea cope with prosecutors was “not off the desk.”
Requested if he was afraid of going to jail, he advised CBS 2 on the time: “I believe everyone needs to be afraid of going to jail, it’s not a reasonably place and uh, I undoubtedly need to work very laborious to keep away from that as greatest as potential.”
Individually Monday, in Manhattan federal court docket, Decide Denise Cote tossed out a lawsuit in which Santos claimed that late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, ABC and Disney dedicated copyright infringement and unjustly enriched themselves at his expense by utilizing movies he made on the Cameo app for a “Jimmy Kimmel Stay” phase. The choose stated it was clear that Kimmel used the clips, which had been additionally posted to YouTube, for functions of criticism and commentary, which is truthful use.
Santos had begun promoting customized movies on Cameo in December shortly after his ouster from Congress. He subsequently launched, then quickly abandoned, a longshot bid to return to Congress as an impartial earlier this 12 months.
In a radio interview that aired Sunday, Santos stated he has taken consolation in being a “considerably non-public civilian” once more.
“I actually don’t miss the rubber hen dinners and the rah-rah-rah events and fundraisers,” he stated of his former life.
With a legal trial looming, he had stated within the WABC interview that he was “terrified.”
“This isn’t completely a simple course of to undergo. It actually hurts and it actually messes along with your psychological well being,” he advised host Cindy Adams.
Because the trial date neared in latest weeks, Santos had sought to have {a partially} nameless jury, along with his legal professionals arguing in court docket papers that “the mere threat of public ridicule might affect the person jurors potential to determine Santos’ case solely on the info and regulation as offered in Court docket.”
He additionally needed potential jurors to fill out a written questionnaire gauging their opinions of him. His legal professionals argued the survey was wanted as a result of “for all intents and functions, Santos has already been discovered responsible within the court docket of public opinion.”
Decide Joanna Seybert agreed to maintain jurors’ identities public however stated no to the questionnaire.
Prosecutors, in the meantime, had been searching for to confess as proof among the monetary falsehoods Santos advised throughout his marketing campaign, together with that he’d labored at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs and that he had operated a family-run agency with roughly $80 million in belongings.
Two Santos marketing campaign aides beforehand pleaded responsible to crimes associated to the previous congressman’s marketing campaign.
His ex-treasurer, Nancy Marks, pleaded guilty in October to a fraud conspiracy cost, implicating Santos in an alleged scheme to brighten his marketing campaign finance stories with a pretend mortgage and pretend donors. A lawyer for Marks stated then that his consumer could be keen to testify towards Santos if requested.
Sam Miele, a former fundraiser for Santos, pleaded guilty a month later to a federal wire fraud cost, admitting he impersonated a high-ranking congressional aide whereas elevating cash for Santos’ marketing campaign.
