George Santos in talks for plea deal on slew of federal charges
The serial liar and ousted lawmaker is scheduled to appear in court in Long Island for a status conference on Tuesday
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Disgraced former congressman George Santos is currently in talks with federal prosecutors to reach a plea deal over his slew of criminal charges, it has been revealed.
In a letter to US District Judge Joanna Seybert, filed on Monday, prosecutors said that the two sides are negotiating a possible plea agreement in a bid to avoid taking the case to trial.
“The parties are presently engaged in plea negotiations with the goal of resolving this matter without the need for a trial,” US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace wrote.
“The parties wish to continue those negotiations over the next thirty days.”
The development comes as the serial liar and doomed lawmaker is scheduled to appear in court in Long Island for a status conference in the case on Tuesday.
Mr Santos – who has turned to Cameo for an income after losing his House seat – is currently expected to go on trial in September.
Prosecutors are asking the trial to brought forward to May or June.
A 30-day delay in the status conference would however allow time for the plea deal to be reached, effectively tabling any trial.
News of a plea deal comes after Mr Santos hinted at the possibility over the weekend.
In an interview with CBS New York, the former lawmaker said that a plea deal “is not off the table, obviously, at this point, but we just don’t know that yet”.
When asked if he was afraid of going to jail, he added that it was something he was seeking to avoid.
“I think everyone should be afraid of going to jail. It’s not a pretty place, and I definitely want to work very hard to avoid that as much as possible,” he said.
In May, Mr Santos was indicted on 13 federal charges in New York including wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and making materially false statements to the US House of Representatives.
Five months later in October, he was hit with a 23-count superseding indictment.
Among the allegations, Mr Santos is accused of defrauding prospective political supporters by laundering funds to line his own pockets, conspiring to falsify donations and lying to the House about his assets, as well as illegally receiving unemployment benefits.
Mr Santos has so far pleaded not guilty to all 23 charges.
However, two of his former staffers have pleaded guilty in the case.
The criminal case tops off a slew of scandals encircling the disgraced former lawmaker who was dramaticall ousted from Congress earlier this month.
Since clawing his way to the Captiol, he was exposed for lying about a whole host of things on his resume, claiming that his mother died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks and being accused of stealing funds raised for a disabled veteran’s dying service dog.
After being hit with criminal charges, calls for his expulsion from office grew.
The nail in the coffin then came in the form of a scathing House Ethics Committee report which found that he had spent campaign donations on OnlyFans and Botox, following a months-long investigation.
In the report, the committee said it had uncovered “substantial evidence” that the GOP lawmaker broke federal laws and that he “knowingly caused his campaign committee to file false or incomplete reports with the Federal Election Commission; used campaign funds for personal purposes; engaged in fraudulent conduct in connection with RedStone Strategies LLC; and engaged in knowing and willful violations of the Ethics in Government Act as it relates to his Financial Disclosure (FD) Statements filed with the House”.
“In light of the ongoing criminal investigation into Representative Santos, and the ISC’s findings of additional uncharged and unlawful conduct by Representative Santos, the ISC recommended that the Committee immediately refer these allegations to the Department of Justice,” the panel wrote.
The committee found evidence that the debt-ridden Mr Santos used the money donors had paid to his campaign to fund his “luxury spending habits” including Botox treatments, OnlyFans payments and shopping trips to Sephora.
Mr Santos allegedly transferred the campaign funds into his own account, then spent $4,127.80 at Hermes and several smaller purchases at OnlyFans.
Over $2,000 of campaign money was spent at casino resorts on the Atlantic City strip while more than $1,500 was spent on Botox, the report finds.
Mr Santos also splashed donor cash on a honeymoon to Las Vegas and a $3,000 stay at an Airbnb in the Hamptons.
“Representative Santos was frequently in debt, had an abysmal credit score, and relied on an ever-growing wallet of high-interest credit cards to fund his luxury spending habits. He occasionally deposited large amounts of cash that he has never accounted for, moved money between his various bank accounts in a highly suspicious manner, and made over $240,000 cash withdrawals for unknown purposes,” the report read.
Following the report’s release, House lawmakers voted overwhelmingly on 1 December to expel him from Congress – a historic move that made him only the sixth lawmaker in American history to ever be expelled.
More than 100 Republicans joined with Democrats to push him out.
Since then, Mr Santos has turned to offering Cameo videos for cash.