George Santos Is Facing Criminal Charges in Federal Investigation, Expected in Court on Wednesday
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New York and Washington public integrity prosecutors from the Department of Justice are looking into allegedly false statements in Santos' campaign finances filings and other claims
New York Congressman George Santos is facing criminal charges from the Department of Justice, according to multiple reports.
The charges filed are sealed at the moment, but the 34-year-old Republican representative is expected to appear in federal court as early as Wednesday, CNN reported. CBS News correspondent Matt Pieper shared on Twitter that Santos is expected to be arrested on Wednesday.
According to the outlet, New York and Washington public integrity prosecutors from the Department of Justice (DOJ) are looking into allegedly false statements in Santos' campaign finances filings and other claims.
The congressman's attorney declined to comment to CNN.
The freshman lawmaker filed paperwork for his 2024 reelection campaign in March to keep his District 3 seat, according to the Federal Election Commission website. The district is made up of parts of Long Island and Queens.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told CNN that he will examine the charges before deciding on whether to remove Santos from Congress.
A bombshell New York Times report found that many of the claims he made on the campaign trail and on his resume were unsubstantiated.
The outlet said Santos misled voters about his level of education, previous jobs and family ties to the Holocaust, news that earned him bipartisan condemnation for misrepresenting himself.
Santos himself acknowledged that he had "embellished" significant portions of his resume, telling the New York Post that he lied about working at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, as he had previously asserted, and about attending Baruch College and New York University (he did not attend college).
In the weeks and months that followed, more mysteries cropped up, like the source of his income, which has seemingly grown by hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent years.
Related:George Santos Is Under Investigation by House Ethics Committee, Speaker McCarthy Confirms
In 2020, when Santos launched his first, ultimately unsuccessful run for the House, he stated in a financial disclosure that he had no assets and no earned income.
But his financial situation appeared to have markedly improved by the time he decided to launch a second run for the House in 2022, with Federal Election Commission filings showing he lent at least $700,000 to his campaign, and $27,000 to his political action committee.
Santos has said the funds came from his company, the Devolder Organization, which The Washington Post reports was organized just one month before the Republican declared his latest candidacy in 2021.
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Federal investigators are also reportedly looking into claims that Santos once scammed a Navy veteran out of $3,000 meant for his ailing service dog, CNN and Politico reported in February.
Allegations directed at Santos grew, with the lawmaker's ex-roommate saying the freshman congressman once spearheaded a credit card-skimming fraud at ATMs.
Politico reports that the former roommate — Gustavo Ribeiro Trelha — made the allegations in a sworn declaration submitted to the FBI.
Trelha was convicted of the fraud in 2017, according to Politico, and deported to Brazil as a result. In his sworn declaration, Trelha claims, "the person in charge of the crime of credit card fraud when I was arrested was George Santos / Anthony Devolder."
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