A federal judge has rejected former New York Rep. George Santos’ request to dismiss some of the fraud charges against him, ruling that his motions to dismiss failed to meet the legal standard.
Santos’ lawyers had sought to dismiss three of 23 felony charges, including two related to aggravated identity theft. They argued that he was accused of overcharging donors’ credit cards and not of stealing their identities. U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert tossed out all motions to dismiss in a ruling Friday.
The disgraced former House Republican has pleaded not guilty to all counts. His trial is scheduled to begin in September. If convicted, he could face up to 22 years in federal prison.
Santos’ tenure in Congress, which lasted just over 10 months, was roiled by controversy even before he was sworn in. In December 2022, The New York Times reported on glaring misrepresentations on his resume and in claims about his background. That led to a series of revelations about his other lies and alleged misdeeds. In May of last year, Santos was charged by the Justice Department in a 13-count indictment; prosecutors filed additional charges against him in October.
Then in November, the House Ethics Committee released a report finding that Santos had “sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit.” After two unsuccessful attempts, his House colleagues eventually voted to expel him in December.
Legislatively speaking, his track record in office wasn’t a success, either. NBC News reported that all 40 bills he introduced languished in committee without a single vote.
Since his expulsion, Santos has tried a number of gambits to claw his way back from irrelevancy. He ran for another New York congressional seat as a Republican, switched to an independent, then ended that campaign as well — all within the space of a few weeks. He joined Cameo, a website for celebrities to make custom short-form videos for a fee; launched subscriptions on X to offer gossip about his former congressional colleagues; and joined the subscription-based social media platform OnlyFans (he said his account would not offer sexual content, as many OnlyFans accounts do, and that he “wanted to stir the pot”).