gurl, bye

George Santos’ troubles just got a whole heap worse

By · 11 comments
George Santos
George Santos (Photo: Shutterstock)

Scandal-hit US Representative George Santos saw his troubles deepen yesterday. Prosecutors hit the gay, Republican congressman from New York with ten fresh charges in a superseding indictment. That’s a document that amends and replaces the original indictment.

Santos was already facing 13 charges leveled against him in May. These include wire fraud, money laundering, and theft of public funds. He has denied them. Santos now faces 23 charges in total.

The new charges include one count of conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States; two counts of wire fraud; two counts of making materially false statements to the FEC; two counts of falsifying records submitted to obstruct the FEC; two counts of aggravated identity theft; and one count of access device fraud.

Fictional donations and money stolen from credit cards

The new charges come after Santos’ former campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks, pleaded guilty last week to one count of conspiracy related to her oversight of Santos’ finances.

In court papers for with that case, Santos was allegedly “lost and desperate” at the end of 2021. He had failewd to raise the necessary $250,000 to run for Congress and needed to find donations fast. Prosecutors in the case say Santos and Marks hatched a scheme to claim some of his relatives had donated money and that he’d met the fundraising threshold. Prosecutors said they had texts and emails to back this up.

The fact that Marks pleaded guilty to this last week led legal experts to suggest Santos would face further charges.

However, the new charges go beyond fictional donations from relatives.

According to Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Santos is accused of “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.”

Specifically, the new charges allege Santos charged more than $44,000 to his campaign using credit card numbers stolen from his contributors.

“Santos falsely inflated the campaign’s reported receipts with non-existent loans and contributions that were either fabricated or stolen,” said Peace.

“This Office will relentlessly pursue criminal charges against anyone who uses the electoral process as an opportunity to defraud the public and our government institutions.”

Santos slams the door on reporters

Reporters attempted to ask Santos about the new charges when they spotted him in Congress yesterday evening. However, he claimed to know nothing about them and had “no comment.” It ended with him slamming his office door in their faces.

News of the fresh charges has renewed calls for Santos to resign. Fellow freshman Rep. Robert Garcia, a gay Democrat from California, has been a consistent critic of Santos. The men have sparred several times on social media. Garcia again called on Santos to “resign immediately.”

Santos is next due to appear in court on October 27.

Related:

Grifter George Santos hard-launched his husband in the wildest way possible & the internet is baffled

This is the first time the scandal-ridden Congressman had made direct mention of his husband on social media.

George Santos says GOP is full of closet gays … and suggests he has receipts

But will he spill the tea?

Don't forget to share:

Help make sure LGBTQ+ stories are being told...

We can't rely on mainstream media to tell our stories. That's why we don't lock Queerty articles behind a paywall. Will you support our mission with a contribution today?

Once Monthly Annually

Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated