A person with knowledge of the case says that former U.S. Rep. George Santos will likely plead guilty to more than one count of federal theft.
The New York Republican Santos is set to make his plea at a court hearing on Long Island on Monday, the person said.
The person could not talk about the facts of the plea in public, so they spoke to the Associated Press under the condition that they not be named.
Messages were sent to three lawyers representing Santos asking them to respond.
The court hearing was set for Monday afternoon after both the prosecutors’ office and Santos’ lawyers asked for one on Friday. They also asked for and got extensions on some dates before the trial.
It was just a few weeks before the Sept. 9 start date for jury selection for this case. Santos has pleaded not guilty to a number of financial crimes in the past, such as lying to Congress about his wealth, getting unemployment benefits while working, and using campaign contributions to pay for things like expensive clothes for himself.
Recently, the prosecutors told the judge that the hearing could last three weeks because they planned to call at least thirty witnesses, some of whom were victims of Santos’ alleged crimes.
In the past, Santos has said that he is innocent and that the investigation is a “witch hunt.” In a recent court filing, officials said that these claims were “baseless.”
It’s already been agreed that two people who worked on Santos’s campaign have broken the law while doing their jobs. Nancy Marks, who used to be his treasurer, pleaded guilty to a fraud conspiracy charge in October and said that she and Santos worked together to add a fake loan and fake donors to his campaign finance records. While that was going on, Marks’s lawyer said that his client would be ready to speak against Santos if asked, because she had been “mentally seduced” by him.
A month later, Sam Miele, who used to raise money for Santos, pleaded guilty to a federal wire-fraud charge. He admitted that while raising money for Santos’s campaign, he pretended to be a high-level congressional aide.
The New York Republican was kicked out of Congress in December after an ethics review found “overwhelming evidence” that he broke the law and used his public position to make money for himself.
