Former US politician George Santos has pleaded guilty to committing wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with the federal fraud case that led to his expulsion from Congress.
The New York Republican entered the plea in a courtroom in Long Island, just weeks before his trial was set to begin in early September.
Mr Santos was indicted on felony charges that he stole from political donors, used campaign contributions to pay for personal expenses, lied to Congress about his wealth and collected unemployment benefits while working.
Mr Santos was expelled from the US House after an ethics investigation found “overwhelming evidence” that he had broken the law and exploited his public position for his own profit.
The case has been set to go to trial early next month.
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The Monday afternoon court date on Long Island was scheduled only on Friday at the request of both prosecutors and Santos’ lawyers.
A letter making the request did not specify what it would be about.
Mr Santos has previously pleaded not guilty to a range of alleged financial crimes, including lying to Congress about his wealth, collecting unemployment benefits while actually working and using campaign contributions to pay for personal expenses.
The 36-year-old was once touted as a rising political star after he flipped the suburban district that covers the affluent North Shore of Long Island and a slice of the New York City borough of Queens in 2022.
But his life story began unravelling before he was even sworn into office.
At the time, reports emerged that he had lied about having a career at top Wall Street firms and a college degree along with other questions of his biography.
New questions then emerged about his campaign funds.
He was first indicted on federal charges in May 2023, but refused to resign from office.
Mr Santos was expelled from Congress after an ethics investigation found “overwhelming evidence” that he had broken the law and exploited his public position for his own profit.
Mr Santos has previously maintained his innocence, though he said in an interview in December that a plea deal with prosecutors was “not off the table”.
Asked if he was afraid of going to prison, he told CBS 2 at the time: “I think everybody should be afraid of going to jail, it’s not a pretty place and uh, I definitely want to work very hard to avoid that as best as possible.”
Separately on Monday, in Manhattan federal court, Judge Denise Cote tossed out a case in which Mr Santos claimed that late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, ABC and Disney committed copyright infringement and unjustly enriched themselves at his expense by using videos he made on the Cameo app for a Jimmy Kimmel Live TV segment.
The judge said it was clear that Kimmel used the clips, which were also posted to YouTube, for the purposes of criticism and commentary, which is fair use.
As the trial date neared in recent weeks, Mr Santos had sought to have a partially anonymous jury, with his lawyers arguing in court papers that “the mere risk of public ridicule could influence the individual jurors ability to decide Santos’ case solely on the facts and law as presented in court”.
He also wanted potential jurors to fill out a written questionnaire gauging their opinions of him.
His lawyers argued the survey was needed because “for all intents and purposes, Santos has already been found guilty in the court of public opinion”.
Judge Joanna Seybert agreed to keep jurors’ identities public but said no to the questionnaire.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, had been seeking to admit as evidence some of the financial falsehoods Santos told during his campaign, including that he’d worked at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs and that he had operated a family-run firm with approximately 80 million dollars in assets.
Mr Santos will likely spend at least six years in prison and owes more than $370,000 (€333,000) in restitution.
His guilty plea in federal court on Long Island came weeks before the case was to go to trial.
The 36-year-old will remain free and out on bail until he is sentenced on February 7th. – AP