Rep. George Santos is maintaining his innocence after getting hit with a 23-count superseding federal indictment, vowing not to resign or pursue a plea bargain.
The 10 new charges — which included charges of wire fraud, identity theft, and falsifying records — were made public as Santos sat in a House GOP closed-door meeting Tuesday evening where phones were banned. The embattled New York Republican said he learned of the additional counts he now faces from the swarm of reporters waiting for him to emerge from the two-hour huddle where House Republicans vetted speaker candidates.
“The answer is no. I will not take a plea deal,” Santos told a small group of reporters Wednesday morning. “I can prove my innocence.”
The latest charges also could trigger another attempt to expel Santos from Congress by fellow House Republicans — many of them in battleground races where getting tied to the New Yorker’s long list of fabrications is a politically toxic prospect. Santos, according to multiple reports, fabricated many facets of his personal story during his run for Congress.
But Santos is all but daring his critics to try again to boot him, which would further shrink the GOP’s four-seat majority.
“They can try to expel me, but I pity the fools that go ahead and do that and think that that’s the smartest idea,” Santos said. “They’re in tough elections next year, but they’re setting precedent for the future.”
Santos insisted he is still running for reelection and tried to shift blame to his former treasurer Nancy Marks, who pleaded guilty last week to conspiring with a congressional candidate to defraud.
Asked if he is blaming Marks for the alleged crimes outlined in the latest indictment, Santos said no and invoked the so-called “Shaggy defense,” a homage to the two-decade-old reggae-pop song: “I’m just saying it wasn’t me. I didn’t handle the finances. That is why you pay treasurers and fundraisers.”
Santos, who was originally indicted in May, had previously pleaded not guilty to the original 13 charges.
