U.S. Rep. George Santos (R-NY) told reporters surrounding him “no comment” Tuesday evening when news broke the Dept. of Justice had just revealed a superseding indictment including an additional ten charges against the freshman New York Republican lawmaker. But Wednesday morning he vowed to not resign or accept any plea deal, said he will run for re-election, and declared he is “pretty much denying” all of the 23 criminal charges he is now facing.
“I did not have access to my phone,” Santos told reporters, including Spectrum News’ Cassie Semyon (video below), when they surrounded him Tuesday as he claimed he had just learned of the latest set of charges. “I have no idea what you guys are talking about.”
Santos refused to respond to questions about the indictment, including, “They say that you stole peoples’ identities, did you steal peoples’ identities?” and, “Are you still going to vote in the Speakers’ election?”
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But Wednesday morning Santos told reporters, as CNN reports, “I’m going to continue to fight this as much as I said in the past. Nothing has changed.”
“I think I’ve made it clear that I will fight this to prove my innocence. So yeah, I’m pretty much denying every last bit of charges.”
“The No. 1 question you all ask me is, ‘Are you going to take a plea deal?’ No. The answer is, I will not take a plea deal,” Santos said. CNN reports the New York GOP Congressman called the campaign finances charges “bullshit.”
Santos also told reporters “half the country” during the coronavirus pandemic took unemployment benefits they were not entitled to.
The Dept. of Justice on Tuesday revealed a damning set of new allegations, including that during his 2022 run for Congress, Santos repeatedly charged credit cards of contributors without telling them, at least one for tens of thousands of dollars. DOJ also alleges he transferred some of those funds, thousands of dollars, to his personal back account.
“Santos allegedly repeatedly charged the contributor’s credit card without the contributor’s knowledge or authorization, attempting to make at least $44,800 in charges and repeatedly concealing the true source of funds by falsely listing the source of funds as Santos himself, his relatives, and other contributors,” DOJ claims. “On one occasion, Santos charged $12,000 to the contributor’s credit card, ultimately transferring the vast majority of that money into Santos’s own personal bank account.”
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The U.S. Dept. of Justice statement says a grand jury indicted Santos on “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 Federal Election Commission (FEC), two counts of falsification of records submitted to the FEC, two counts of aggravated identity theft, and one count of access device fraud.”
“Santos was previously charged with an additional seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the U.S. House of Representatives in the original indictment.”
Watch the video below or at this link.