Not a Bad Day

There are reports that George Santos is facing official federal charges.

My guess is that some of his financial shenanigans checked a couple of felonious boxes.

I have mixed feelings about this.

On the one hand, this guy is clearly a criminal, but on the other hand, he is the rake that Congressional Republicans keep stepping on:

Representative George Santos, the New York Republican who has been the target of numerous investigations into his personal and campaign finances since his biography was found to be a web of lies and exaggerations, has been charged by federal prosecutors in New York, three people familiar with the investigation said.

The charges come after months of investigation by the office of the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, which has been conducting one of the inquiries into Mr. Santos’s financial and campaign activities.

………

Mr. Santos has been subject to intense scrutiny in the wake of reporting published by The New York Times last year that found he had lied about his biography, education and work history to voters and that raised questions about his personal wealth and campaign finances.

Subsequent reporting uncovered evidence of possible misconduct, including an unregistered fund that purported to be raising huge amounts for Mr. Santos’s campaign seemingly in violation of campaign finance laws; hundreds of thousands of dollars in unexplained spending; and a strange string of payments for $199.99, just below the threshold where receipts would be required.

The F.B.I., federal prosecutors and the Nassau County district attorney’s office have also been investigating Mr. Santos’s role in brokering a $19 million luxury yacht deal between two of his wealthy donors. And the Securities and Exchange Commission has made inquiries into the work that Mr. Santos did for the troubled financial firm Harbor City Capital, which the government accused of operating as a Ponzi scheme.

Mr. Santos is also facing separate charges in Brazil on an allegation of check fraud; a hearing on that matter will take place on Thursday.

Yeah, nothing suspicious there.

………

The timeline for any case against Mr. Santos is still unknown. But even if Mr. Santos was convicted of a crime, he could continue to serve in Congress. He would only be removed from office if two-thirds of the members of the House of Representatives voted to expel him.

………

Last month, Mr. Santos announced he would seek re-election. “I’m not going anywhere,” he later told a group of Republicans at an event in Washington. “You’re going to have to drag my dead, cold body out of this institution.”

The prospect of his running a campaign from prison is amusing.

Convict number 9653 he ain't.