Scandal-plagued Rep. George Santos (R-NY) slammed the door on reporters Tuesday night after he was asked about a damning series of additional federal fraud charges that were levied against the freshman congressmen just hours before.
Before running away from the media inquiry, he claimed to have been in a Republican conference meeting without his phone—and said he had no idea that the new charges had even been filed.
“I did not have access to my phone. I have no clue what you guys are talking about,” Santos told CNN’s Manu Raju, who added that the 35-year-old “rushed into his office and slammed his door on us.” Santos also added that he has no plans to resign.
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Tuesday’s new superseding indictment laid out 23 charges against Santos, including the accusation that he faked a $500,000 loan and filed false campaign reports reflecting that loan and other entirely fake contributions. Prosecutors also allege he fraudulently charged tens of thousands of dollars to his own donors’ credit cards.
In a statement, the U.S. Attorney Breon Stacy Peace said Santos was “lying to the FEC and, by extension, the public about the financial state of his campaign.”
The writing appeared to be on the wall for Santos after his former treasurer, Nancy Marks, threw him under the bus last week and accused him of scheming with her to deceive deep-pocketed donors and to trick the National Republican Congressional Committee into believing Santos had reached a donation threshold that’d qualify his campaign for extra “financial and logistical” support.
Marks, who cut a plea deal with prosecutors last week that is expected to send her to a federal prison, claimed that Santos lied about loaning his campaign $500,000 of his own money, making the donation up to boost his donor total.
In a statement, the feds grilled Santos for the alleged stunt—saying he could have never loaned such an amount at the time because his personal and business bank accounts less than $8,000 combined.
The statement also made clear that Santos—who at one point claimed to have loaned his campaign $755,000—had not faked just one loan, but several. Santos, the DOJ statement said, “had not made the reported loans and, at the time the loans were reported, did not have the funds necessary to make such loans.”
The Daily Beast reported on Tuesday, hours before the indictment was handed down, that the $500,000 was eventually paid with real money, just backfilled later in the cycle—though the true source of those funds was still unclear. The indictment itself did not address the other fake loans.
Prosecutors also alleged Santos charged his donors’ credit cards without permission from Dec. 2021 to Aug. 2022—accusations that led him to be charged with aggravated identity theft and credit card fraud. At one point, Santos charged $12,000 to a donor’s credit card, later depositing almost all of the money into his personal account.
Santos was indicted on 13 federal charges in May. He is due back in court on Oct. 27.
Read it at New York Daily News
