As we reported on Friday, former New York Congressman George Santos (R) initially maintained his innocence but indicated he would plead guilty in the federal criminal case, which was scheduled to begin in September.
Report: Santos expected to avoid federal trial and plead guilty
Santos was on trial on 23 charges, including wire fraud, identity theft, making false statements to the Federal Election Commission and forgery to obstruct the FEC.
Monday afternoon, Santos pleaded guilty on two of these charges.
George Santos, the excluded from Congress While nearly two dozen criminal charges have been filed against him, he reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors in New York on Monday on two federal charges.
Santos pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Santos will be sentenced in February. The expected sentence is between six and eight years. In addition, Santos must pay damages.
Santos spoke in court and admitted to a number of crimes, CBS News’ Scott MacFarlane reported. He admitted to fraudulently using at least one other person’s credit cards for his personal gain and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission. He also admitted to committing wire fraud between September and October 2022.
According to the agreement, Santos must repay at least $373,000.
Santos was expelled from Congress in December. After a special election in February, he was replaced by Democrat Tom Suozzi, shrinking the Republican majority in the House of Representatives.
BREAKING NEWS: George Santos expelled from the House of Representatives
Tom Suozzi defeats Mazi Pilip in the 2003 NY special election and wins his seat back for the Democrats
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