Santos charged with 10 new criminal counts in superseding indictment
by Ella Lee and Zach Schonfeld - 10/10/23 6:01 PM ET
Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) was charged with 10 new criminal counts over accusations he inflated his campaign finance reports and charged donors’ credit cards without authorization.
Santos pleaded not guilty in May to a 13-count indictment, and the new charges, unveiled Tuesday, bring the total to 23.
The charges add new criminal exposure for the embattled lawmaker, who began his first term in January after admitting to embellishing parts of his background. Santos is due to appear in court Oct. 27.
The additional indictment comes days after Santos’s former campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks, reached a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to conspiring with the then-candidate over what prosecutors are dubbing the “Party Program,” accusations that the duo committed fraud on Santos’s campaign finance reports.
The scheme was meant to ensure that Santos and his campaign qualified for a “national party committee” program that would provide financial and logistical support to Santos’ bid for Congress, prosecutors said. To qualify, the New York Republican had to show his campaign raised at least $250,000 from third-party contributors in a single quarter.
After failing to qualify for the program in October 2021, an agent of the national party committee told Santos that the “only driver that matters is raising $250K,” according to the indictment.
“We are going to do this a little different. I got it,” Santos allegedly replied, the charging document says.
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https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4248753-santos-charged-10-new-criminal-counts-superseding-indictment/
