Former U.S. Rep. George Santos on Friday misplaced a bid to do away with a part of the legal case in opposition to him as he heads towards trial on expenses that embrace defrauding marketing campaign donors.
U.S. District Joanna Seybert turned down Santos’ request to dismiss expenses of aggravated identification theft and theft of public cash — in all, three of the 23 expenses in opposition to the New York Republican.
Prosecutors and Santos’ legal professionals declined to remark.
Prosecutors have accused Santos of a variety of crimes — amongst them mendacity to Congress about his wealth, amassing unemployment advantages whereas truly working, and utilizing marketing campaign contributions to pay for such private bills as designer clothes. He pleaded not guilty to a revised indictment in October.
The aggravated identification theft expenses pertain to allegations that Santos used marketing campaign donors’ bank card data to make repeated contributions they hadn’t approved. Prosecutors say he additionally tried to cover the true supply of the cash — and evade marketing campaign contribution limits — by itemizing the donations as coming from a few of his relations and associates, with out their assent.
Santos’ legal professionals argued in courtroom filings that the aggravated identification theft expenses had been invalid as a result of, within the protection’s view, the allegations amounted solely to overcharging bank card accounts that had been willingly supplied to him.
Prosecutors disputed that argument. They stated in filings that Santos hadn’t simply “used” the bank card data however “abused it, with particular intent to defraud” in an effort to make his marketing campaign coffers look fuller.
The theft of public funds cost pertains to the alleged unemployment fraud.
Santos’ legal professionals stated the cost improperly mixed a number of alleged legal schemes and transactions. Courts have stated in different instances that such mixture isn’t allowed for varied causes, together with the chance that jurors might convict on the cost whereas believing a defendant responsible of solely a part of it.
Prosecutors in Santos’ case stated the theft of public funds cost in opposition to him alleges “a single persevering with scheme.”
The previous Congress member is slated to go on trial in September in Central Islip, on New York’s Lengthy Island.
In April, he dropped his longshot bid to return to Congress as an unbiased in New York’s 1st Congressional District, on Lengthy Island.
