I don't know if the NY Times is working overtime on the George Santos criminal fraud beat out of guilt or trying to cover up their incompetence on stopping him from even being nominated last year, but the more we find out about Santos's pathological lies about his criminal background, the more I want to smash people's heads in at the Times, the NY Democratic party, law enforcement and prosecutors, state and federal, for letting the GOP put in another Trump fascist in the House.
When Representative-elect George Santos takes his seat in Congress on Tuesday, he will do so under the shadow of active investigations by federal and local prosecutors into potential criminal activity during his two congressional campaigns.
But an older criminal case may be more pressing: Brazilian law enforcement authorities intend to revive fraud charges against Mr. Santos, and will seek his formal response, prosecutors said on Monday.
The matter, which stemmed from an incident in 2008 regarding a stolen checkbook, had been suspended for the better part of a decade because the police were unable to locate him.
A spokeswoman for the Rio de Janeiro prosecutor’s office said that with Mr. Santos’s whereabouts identified, a formal request will be made to the U.S. Justice Department to notify him of the charges, a necessary step after which the case will proceed with or without him.
The criminal case in Brazil was first disclosed in a New York Times investigation that uncovered broad discrepancies in his résumé and questions about his financial dealings.
Just a month before his 20th birthday, Mr. Santos entered a small clothing store in the Brazilian city of Niterói outside Rio de Janeiro. He spent nearly $700 using a stolen checkbook and a false name, court records show.
Mr. Santos admitted the fraud to the shop owner in August 2009, writing on Orkut, a popular social media website in Brazil, “I know I screwed up, but I want to pay.” In 2010, he and his mother told the police that he had stolen the checkbook of a man his mother used to work for, and used it to make fraudulent purchases.
A judge approved the charge in September 2011 and ordered Mr. Santos to respond to the case. But by October, he was already in the United States and working at Dish Network in College Point, Queens, company records show.
Despite his earlier confessions, Mr. Santos has recently denied any criminal involvement, telling The New York Post, “I am not a criminal here — not here or in Brazil or any jurisdiction in the world.”
Joe Murray, a lawyer for Mr. Santos, said on Monday, “I am in the process of engaging local counsel to address this alleged complaint against my client.”
Just the sheer number of decision points where Santos should have been in jail and his political career ended is shocking, and yet he made it all the way to the US House of Representatives as a career criminal.
Fitting, I guess. He'll never be expelled even if convicted, because the GOP can't afford to lose any seats. As such, the House GOP plans to open the session today with new rules that will all but eliminate Democrats from the House Ethics Committee.
You know, if they even can elect a Speaker to begin.
More on that later today.
Of course even if Santos was somehow removed, given the gargantuan incompetence of the NY Democratic Party, they'd lose a special election for sure, and a rematch in 2024 is at best a 50-50 proposition.
It just fills me with anger. This guy should have been fried like a clam years ago.
Yet here he is, about to be sworn in today, and making laws.
Disgraceful.
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