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A SCANDAL-PLAGUED Republican congressman whose extensive lies have made headlines since his election last year was hit with additional charges by federal prosecutors yesterday.
George Santos, 35, pleaded not guilty in May to seven counts of wire fraud, three of money laundering, one of theft of public funds and two of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives.
Prosecutors charged Santos with an additional 10 counts yesterday, including identity theft and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
“Santos is charged with stealing people’s identities and making charges on his own donors’ credit cards without their authorization, lying to the FEC and, by extension, the public about the financial state of his campaign,” Breon Peace, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said.
“Santos falsely inflated the campaign’s reported receipts with non-existent loans and contributions that were either fabricated or stolen,” Peace said in a statement.
Santos is to appear in court on 27 October to answer the charges.
Santos has already admitted fabricating much of his biography, including his real name, his religion – he falsely claimed to be Jewish – his schooling and his employment history when he ran last year for a House seat representing parts of Long Island, New York.
According to the initial indictment, Santos defrauded donors during his successful November 2022 election, transferring money into his own account and using it to pay off personal debts and buy designer clothing.
Santos is also accused of collecting unemployment benefits that he was not entitled to during the coronavirus pandemic, before his election to Congress.
Prosecutors say he pocketed $24,000 in benefits while earning $120,000 a year at a Florida-based investment firm.
Santos has faced calls to resign from constituents, some fellow Republicans as well as Democrats in Congress, but has thus far refused.
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He would fit in with FFG nicely
@: He would be more suited to SF/IRA. Do you remember a certain councillor who was close to the party leader.
@sammcalester@hotmail.co.uk:
Hi Oisin.
@sammcalester@hotmail.co.uk: you have conveniently forgotten Ahern, Haughey, Lowry, OMalley, Flannery. All, or connections of, still in the loop with FFG.
@: didn’t Pearse tell fibs in his CV too?
@M Bowe: I’m not forgetting them . Neither am I forgetting all the gentlemen republicans in South Armagh. Throw away remarks like “fit in with FFG” are taken out of Trump’s playbook and the mess he has left America in is more than likely to be repeated in Ireland with a SF/IRA led government.
@sammcalester@hotmail.co.uk: do you remember the minister of finance that hadn’t a bank account or the minister for justice jailed for contemp of court and there great leader Charlie and his bank write offs
@sammcalester@hotmail.co.uk: haughey buying Very expensive shirts from paris whilst asking people to tighten their belts.
@: they aren’t the parties who specialise in bank robberies , money laundering , possession of 200 properties (money laundering ) and smuggling over various goods and services . That’s more SF area of specialist knowledge . They’d know a thing or ten about wire transfers and IT in general . it was SF who got caught by the data protection commission for their use of people’s data for electoral purposes . Spent big on software for it
@M Bowe: ah, but they were GIFTS and the odd innocent dig out and in Lowry’s case brown envelopes . No wired fraud or wire transfer and no money laundering ! Lowry and his kin have had nothing to do with either party for the best part of 30 years . Shinners are more tech savvy and more advanced like our American friend in the article
@brian madden: Haughey may as well been a member of SF/IRA from his conduct during the the IRA terrorist reign in the Six Counties. SF/IRA at present is trying to distance itself from their idols – Putin and Hamas.
@sammcalester@hotmail.co.uk: SF would be more suited to running this country than the shambles that we have at the minute. FFG IS A DISGRACE
@sammcalester@hotmail.co.uk: the only ‘ playbook’ is use here is your own usage of Leo’s call to attack SF at all and any opportunity, even like now when the subject matter is far removed from that party. Facts/ substance is never required, just innuendo false info derived opinions will suffice.
@M Bowe: See the first comment. It is the SF/IRA play book. The article did not refer to Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil but someone with SF/IRA leaning tried to equate the the conduct of Santos with the conduct of FG and FF. Evidently it is ok for SF/IRA to throw snide remarks but when countered it is no acceptable.
The fact that he was actually elected shows how broken and tribal U.S. politics had become. Fake name, fake background, fake qualifications, and people still voted for him because he was from “their party”
@Jason Memail: To be fair, the details of the monsoon of lies was only published after he was elected.
However, the local Republican Party clearly did not do a scrap of Due Diligence and what’s arguably worse is that, once detected, he hasn’t been forced to resign by his Party.
@Jason Memail:
It’s always gone on.
Joe Biden has a long history of plagiarism right through his political career, even prior to that in law school.
In his failed 1988 bid for president he plagiarised John F Kennedy. He even plagiarised Neil Kinnock. He also lied about his family’s mining history
Now he’s President.
@Tommy Haze: Trump was President for four years and he was the Lyin’ King, fact checked over 30,000 times for his lies.
@Brian Lonergan: Those are just numbers. Numbers. Trump was way more entertaining and ain’t that what good ol’ uncle sam is all about?
@Brian Lonergan:
If every US president had the same level of scrutiny as Trump he’d barely make the top 10.
@Denis Rathsallagh Brady: The families of the hundreds of thousands of innocent people who died from the Covid while trump concentrated on his endless golf holidays at enormous expense to the taxpayer aren’t feeling entertained by trump.
@Tommy Haze: Trump will come bottom of the pile in ANY honest survey.
@Brian Lonergan: are you talking about Andrew Cuomo in the same breath?
@Brian Lonergan: You mean Fauci, right?
Who would have guessed a politician could be a fraud?
The photo alone would be enough to make me suspicious.
@Stanley Marsh:
Shifty looking all right.
Just looked him up on Wikipedia.
Mother of God.
Big jail time on the way for him.
Makes Leo and Co look like alter boy’s.
What a dope.
First rule of office:
Cover your tracks
As the first active member of the LGB’s in Republican politics, he’d still get Irish residency here in a heartbeat and within 6 months Leo and the No Good Organisation’s would have him busy. It’s an unfortunate fact which is highlighted in the media, how these LGB type seem to make a lot of noise per capita than those of us who just try to get on with life as honestly as we can.
@Caoimín Ó Muircheartaigh: But I thought the GOP were the party honest decent folk.
And no. He wouldn’t last 10 minutes in Irish politics. He’d be turned inside out
@Caoimín Ó Muircheartaigh: Bit of a thing for the auld LGBs, haven’t you?
From the Guardian “The ex-treasurer for US congressman George Santos pleaded guilty Thursday to a fraud conspiracy charge and implicated the indicted New York Republican in a scheme to embellish his campaign finance reports with a fake loan and fake donors.”
He is TOAST. And really, REALLY dumb.
He had a great career as a drag queen in Brazil. He should never have done into politics and wasted all that drag queen talent.
Himself and Caitlyn Jenner could be on the ticket for 2028. The perfect Maga presidency. They’ve already had Queen Trump in office. Anything goes with today’s GOP
The usual ‘us vs them’ stuff in the comments. People bickering about what others have done in an effort to save face for those they support. The only thing this achieves is facilitating more of the same.
Why can’t people put their politics aside and just call out misbehavior when it is evident?
Don’t we get foreign doctors here doing the same but if I went for a job in a hospital as a porter my passed record would be investigated no problem
@john mac: yeah if your foreign you definitely don’t need visas or anything like that.
Fair enough on Santos, let’s hope the move as fast with Mendendez in NJ
Now let them go thru finances in precise detail of every other politician, no exceptions.
Sounds like he’d make a fabulous politician.
Sure didn’t he just identify as someone else? Any LGBTQ+ can identify as cats n dogs, but as soon as a normal person wants to do it, they’re a liar.
@Father Ted: The absolute state of this comment. Scarlet for ya
@Jason Memail: why? Do you not like hearing the truth
An exciting guy They probably never asked him or checked out his real name So much for Ai technology and photo id to get elected He could be a good man to run the country or the banks into the ground
@Oliver Kelleher: He can turn up to Ireland with no passport and make a whole new life for himself now. Anything goes!
@Mike: How many times are people going to trot out this lie?
Anything does NOT “go” as has been detailed out multiple times.
@Tricia G: Anything goes, Tish ; )
I’m more worried by Pelosi’s insider trading.
@Dan Breen: What do you think of this particular story or are you just interested in whataboutary?
@Dan Breen: Insider trading is not illegal in the US congress. No point being worried by Pelosi’s insider trading when they refuse to make it illegal & they pretty much all make huge profits from benefitting from knowing about Federal Government policy in advance or even making Federal policy.
@Monetpenny: As has been pointed out to you on multiple occasions the US Democratic Party has put bills before Congress to ban Congressional insider trading, bills which have been blocked by the US Republican Party.
When will this ‘news website’ publish a report on Senator Bob Menendez being indicted for bribery?
I would’ve thought that was pretty newsworthy as his daughter is a newsanchor for MSNBC & he previously beat a bribery prosecution.
@Monetpenny: Yep.
Isn;t it amazing the difference between the 2 parties, though.
The US Republican Party has not condemned or sanctioned Santos,
The US Democratic Party has with Mendelez.
It would make you think that one has no standards at all.
have your say