Rep. George Santos (R-NY) has been slapped with federal charges, but we don’t know what they are yet. I’m not kidding. We get this development that the Department of Justice has indicted the controversial New York Republican. Still, the offenses remain under wraps, par for the course for the hyper-political minions who now infest that building. Santos is no saint, but that goes for almost everyone in Washington, DC, a mecca for sociopaths, swindlers, and abject depravity. Santos has been facing a slew of investigations, including one by the House Ethics Committee. The Associated Press had one of the first reports that Mr. Santos faced federal indictment. The New York Times had more about why this man is under the microscope:
Representative George Santos, the New York Republican who has been the target of numerous investigations into his personal and campaign finances since his biography was found to be a web of lies and exaggerations, has been charged by federal prosecutors in New York, three people familiar with the investigation said.
The charges come after months of investigation by the office of the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, which has been conducting one of the inquiries into Mr. Santos’s financial and campaign activities.
[…]
Mr. Santos has been subject to intense scrutiny in the wake of reporting published by The New York Times last year that found he had lied about his biography, education and work history to voters and that raised questions about his personal wealth and campaign finances.
Subsequent reporting uncovered evidence of possible misconduct, including an unregistered fund that purported to be raising huge amounts for Mr. Santos’s campaign seemingly in violation of campaign finance laws; hundreds of thousands of dollars in unexplained spending; and a strange string of payments for $199.99, just below the threshold where receipts would be required.
[…]
The F.B.I., federal prosecutors and the Nassau County district attorney’s office have also been investigating Mr. Santos’s role in brokering a $19 million luxury yacht deal between two of his wealthy donors. And the Securities and Exchange Commission has made inquiries into the work that Mr. Santos did for the troubled financial firm Harbor City Capital, which the government accused of operating as a Ponzi scheme.
Mr. Santos is also facing separate charges in Brazil on an allegation of check fraud; a hearing on that matter will take place on Thursday.
There have been calls for Santos’ ouster, though that’s a tall order as it takes two-thirds of a Republican majority House to sign off on that measure. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has been adamant that no motion to expel Mr. Santos would be considered unless he’s convicted. That’s the game-changer for him, much to the dismay of Democrats. Axios reported that GOP patience with the embattled Long Island Republican is wearing thin, but most aren’t budging on expurgatory measures until he’s found guilty.
In the meantime, did Santos have an FBI rat in his office? Someone is confessing to being one, so I’ll leave this here:
I can publicly confirm that during my brief time in the Congressman’s office I had met secretly with agents from @FBI in an effort to work as a confidential informant and human asset against the Congressman during my course of employment in his office. I cannot go into further… https://t.co/04nyKyliVK
— Derek Myers (@DerekMyers) May 9, 2023