Rep. George Santos casts his vote as the House of Representatives holds its second round of voting for a new Speaker of the House at the U.S. Capitol on October 18, 2023 in Washington, DC.
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George Santos is in plea negotiations with prosecutors.Federal prosecutors slipped that detail in a filing to the judge, asking to push back a meeting.Two of ex-Congressman’s associates have already pleaded guilty and could testify against him.
George Santos is negotiating a plea deal with federal prosecutors in his criminal case.
On Monday, federal prosecutors in New York told the federal judge overseeing the disgraced former Congressman’s criminal case asking to push back a previously scheduled court meeting so that they could continue discussing a plea deal with Santos’s attorney.
“The parties are presently engaged in plea negotiations with the goal of resolving this matter without the need for a trial,” prosecutors wrote in the filing.
Joseph Murray, an attorney representing Santos in the case, confirmed to Business Insider that plea negotiations are ongoing.
Federal prosecutors have brought a 23-count indictment against Santos, a serial fabulist who represented parts of Long Island and Queens in Congress until he was ousted earlier this month.
Prosecutors allege Santos broke an array of campaign finance laws, lied to Congress and the Federal Elections Commission in official forms, stole money intended for people experiencing hardship during the height of the coronavirus, committed identity theft by charging other people’s credit cards without permission, among other offenses.
Santos has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which are scheduled to go to trial in September.
Two of Santos’s associates have already pleaded guilty to related crimes.
In October, his 2022 Congressional campaign treasurer Nancy Marks pleaded guilty to several crimes related to misrepresenting the campaign’s finances. In November, a campaign aide, Sam Miele, pleaded guilty to wire fraud for a scheme where he pretended to be a staffer for former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to solicit donations.
The full terms of their plea deals were not disclosed in court filings, but such agreements normally require them to testify on behalf of prosecutors in related criminal cases, raising the possibility that they would testify against Santos in his case.
Congress voted to expel George Santos — the sixth time in history — earlier in December. Since then, he has become a celebrity on Cameo, where he charges $400 to make videos.