George Santos pleads not guilty to fundraising and credit card fraud at New York arraignment

Rep. George Santos (D-NY) pleaded not guilty in federal court on Friday to charges brought against him in a new indictment alleging he filed fraudulent fundraising reports and committed credit card fraud during the 2022 election cycle.

The judge in the case set Santos’s trial for Sept. 9, 2024, roughly two months before next year’s elections, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York.

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Santos was originally indicted in May on six charges brought by U.S. Attorney Breon Peace. Peace added 17 new charges in a superseding indictment against Santos on Oct. 10.

Santos stands accused of several counts of wire fraud, money laundering, and making false statements.

During his successful run for Congress in 2021 and 2022, he and his treasurer “conspired and agreed to falsely inflate” his fundraising totals in Federal Election Commission filings to meet certain benchmarks, according to his indictment.

Santos also made tens of thousands of dollars in unauthorized charges to his donors’ credit cards, the indictment said.

The New York freshman has repeatedly come under fire for his legal troubles since being sworn in to Congress earlier this year, with several lawmakers, including those from his own party, calling for his resignation. Democrats introduced a resolution in May seeking to expel Santos from Congress, but the motion failed to overcome the two-thirds majority threshold needed to pass after Republicans instead voted to refer the matter to the Ethics Committee for an investigation.

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Then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) vowed to have an expedited investigation that would be completed before lawmakers left for August recess, but the committee has yet to release its findings. Now, a handful of Republicans in Santos’s own state are pushing for his expulsion, with a vote expected on the matter next week.

Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY) introduced the expulsion resolution on Thursday alongside fellow Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY), Nick LaLota (R-NY), and Marc Molinaro (R-NY).

This story is developing and will be updated.