(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Nobel Prize winning astronaut-clairvoyant George Anthony Devolder Santos has outdone himself again, picking up another ten charges in Eastern District of New York.
The superseding indictment adds two new schemes to the overachieving New York Congressman’s running tally, which until yesterday included defrauding donors by soliciting contributions to a “501(c)(4)” which was actually a private company, an unemployment scam under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act, and lying on his House financial disclosures.
Back in May, we noted that the original indictment seemed pretty skinny, particularly in light of public reporting on rampant corruption at his campaign. But last week, Santos’s campaign treasurer Nancy Marks pled guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to defraud the United States for her role in falsely reporting that the Long Island Republican had made a $500,000 loan to his campaign. And now prosecutors are coming down on Santos like a ton of bricks.
The new indictment alleges that Santos participated in a “Party Program Scheme,” to falsely inflate his campaign donations in an effort to reach the $250,000 quarterly threshold which would allow him to get financial and logistical support from the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). In December of 2021 and January of 2022, Santos and Marks dummied up their final campaign finance report to say that ten members of Santos’s extended family had maxed out their donations, bringing his quarterly receipts to $251,549.68.
“I GOT [THE NRCC PROGRAM]!” Santos texted Marks on February 23, 2022.
The next quarter, at a time when he had less that $8,000 in his checking account, Santos and Marks said that he was making a $500,000 loan to his campaign. Always be (telling the FEC and the NRCC that you’re) closing!
Membership in the NRCC program had its privileges. Not only did Santos get the party imprimatur, but he got tangible benefits as well, such as the committee picking up half the tab for a poll conducted by the Santos campaign in September of 2022. But the program also came with obligations to kick out cash to other candidates. And that’s how Santos got himself into the “Credit Card Fraud Scheme.”
According to the new indictment, which refers to the defendant by his full government name in a nod to his many aliases, Santos repeatedly charged donors’ credit cards to satisfy his obligations to other Republican candidates, top up his own coffers, and just to get a little cash for himself.
In or about and between December 2021 and August 2022, the defendant GEORGE ANTHONY DEVOLDER SANTOS devised and executed a fraudulent scheme whereby he stole personal identity and financial information of individuals who had contributed to the Committee and used it to cause these individuals’ credit cards to be charged repeatedly without authorization (the “Credit Card Fraud Scheme”). Through these unauthorized transactions, DEVOLDER SANTOS transferred funds to the Committee, to the campaigns of other candidates for elected office and to his personal bank account. Further, for the purpose of concealing the true source of funds and circumventing campaign contribution limits, DEVOLDER SANTOS falsely represented that the political contributions were made by other individuals, such as DEVOLDER SANTOS’s relatives and associates.
The charges dropped when Santos was in a caucus meeting to select the next House Speaker, and he purported to be unaware of it when he emerged.
GEORGE SANTOS leaving the House GOP meeting tonight says “I have no idea what you guys are talking about,” when asked about the 23 new charges he is facing. Members had to check us phone, and Santos claimed he hadn’t looked at his phone at all. pic.twitter.com/zHWE4Ez88O
— Cassie Semyon (@casssemyon) October 10, 2023
But since then the Congressman has caught his bearings and is preparing to fend off a move by his fellow New York Republicans to expel him.
“It’s disheartening to witness my colleagues prioritize their campaigns over the essential work that needs to be done, “he tut-tutted in a statement released on Trwitter, urging his colleagues to “remain steadfast in our commitment to upholding due process and respecting the Constitution.”
And in an unsubtle nod to Republicans’ wafer-thin majority in the House, he appears to suggest that anyone who crosses him won’t be getting his support, either in the short- or the long-term.
An expulsion of myself as a member of Congress before being found guilty from a criminal investigation will set a dangerous precedent. This will do nothing other than erase the voices of the electorate. Let us not succumb to the distractions and let the political games take precedence over the people’s welfare. We must stay focused on the task at hand, working diligently to address the pressing issues that affect the lives of our constituents.
Santos finishes with a rhetorical flourish which will definitely make its way into the Hulu series about this insane debacle.
“Stay strong my fellow Americans, and trust that the process will unfold as it should,” he intones patriotically. “Together, we can overcome these challenges and forge a better future for all Americans.”
No doubt US District Judge Joanna Seybert will be mad impressed.
US v. Devolder Santos [Docket via Court Listener]
Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics and appears on the Opening Arguments podcast.