Republican Congressman George Santos (seen above smoozing with fellow shoe-scraping Matt Gaetz) surrendered himself at the Federal Courthouse in Long Island this morning, where he was arrested and charged with multiple counts of money laundering, wire fraud and theft during the time he was campaigning to represent his district in Long Island in the U.S. Congress.
The charges of money laundering and wire fraud are linked to funds he collected from donors for his 2022 campaign but instead used to upgrade his wardrobe and pay off credit cards. He will be charged with theft from the state of New York for collecting more than $24,000 in unemployment benefits during the time when he was running while gainfully employed in the state of Florida and raking in $750,000 in campaign contributions…
“The Justice Department on Wednesday unsealed 13 federal charges against Rep. George Santos – including fraud related to Covid-related unemployment benefits and using campaign funds for luxury clothing – and the New York Republican is in custody.
Santos has been charged on seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives.
Prosecutors allege Santos solicited campaign funds under false pretense and used them for personal expenses like designer clothing.”
Santos’ arrest presents quite a predicament for Speaker McCarthy and his cobbled together House Majority, who are being forced to defend that other shameless miscreant, Dotard J. Drumpf following his being deemed culpable for sexual assault in a New York civil suit…
“Listen, George Santos should have resigned in December. George Santos should have resigned in January. George Santos should have resigned yesterday. And perhaps he’ll resign today. But sooner or later, whether he chooses to or not, both the truth and justice will be delivered to him,” said U.S. Rep. Marc Molinaro, a Republican representing parts of upstate New York.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was more circumspect, saying “I think in America, you’re innocent till proven guilty.”
Like Drumpf was yesterday, huh, Kevin?
As might be expected, left-leaning Twitterers are all chirping
quite cheerfully this fine morning.
— Agatha (@NaughtyAgatha45) May 10, 2023
Ho Ho Ho.
The "Indictmas" holiday is going to be glorious this year! Here's hoping we get many more "gifts" this holiday season!
— 💙💙Monica Girard 💙💙🇺🇲 (@Baileybear544) May 10, 2023
Indictments are grand, Bailey, but I want convictions under my tree.
He will not resign they will have to haul him out in cuffs and McCarthy won’t let that happen unless He already has a replacement criminal for Santos’ position/vote!
— Maureen Reilly (@Moe6660001) May 10, 2023
Yup
@Santos4Congress rise and shine Pinocchio you have a full day ahead ⚖️ pic.twitter.com/oOXaU1cQNo
— MinnesotaGirl (@PartyUpNorth) May 10, 2023
👍👍👍
Hooray! But my champagne budget is taking a beating!😆😆😆😆
— Phyllis Lowry (@Phylbowman) May 10, 2023
🍾🍾🍾
Myself, I’ll hold off on popping the corks on the good stuff until Drumpf and his wannabe successor Santos are properly convicted in a criminal court.
I would call McCarthy a pimp but he is more like the one in the platform shoes.
I heard last night all the expected charges could add up to good 20 years for Santos. That’s a lot of time for a person his age to be looking at, and don’t forget the State of NY might have its own charges to hit him with too. That he didn’t resign long ago is a disgrace but also entirely what you’d expect from him. His Congress Critter salary and benefits go way the hell beyond what he’d be “earning” otherwise. He also knows how much McCarthy needs his vote, something he made a point of last week by making sure he was the LAST Republican to cast a vote on McCarthy’s debt limit bill. Sort of a “Hey Kev. (and the rest of you too!) You NEED me!” type of thing. However, I saw an analyst talking to Andrea Mitchell suggest something interesting. Which is that his lawyers can use that as leverage with prosecutors to ratchet down the charges and years in prison. Basically, try to cut a deal for minimal time in a not so bad federal pen in exchange for a guilty plea and getting him out of Congress. Is there anyone who doesn’t think if a sweet enough deal can be cut Santos will sell out McCarthy in a heartbeat? I hate to say it but I’d be ok with him cutting a deal for say a year or two in a minimum security federal prison to get him out of Congress right away. The odds are overwhelming the remainder of his term will be filled by a Democrat and make McCarthy’s and the GOP’s situation that much worse. Those “moderates” that snuck through in Districts Biden carried will be under enormous pressure. Enough that a few of them may well crack and we will have an awful but not bat-sh!t insane House of Representatives for the remainder of the current Congress.
Let him resign, do a year or two in a federal holiday camp – then let NY hit him HARD (with no deals even remotely near the table).
To Maureen Reilly: The only way Cavein Mccarthy can replace Santos w/another R congressman is in an election. Do you really think the people who were duped into voting him in want to replace him with another Republican?
“Cavein McCarthy – perfect…
As chief justice of scotus, will George be representing himself?