BREAKING: George Santos Arrested On Charges Of Fraud And Money Laundering

Republican Congressman George Santos (R-NY) has been arrested by the Department of Justice. Santos is facing 13 counts, including wire fraud, money laundering, and theft of public funds.

Fox News reports:

A 13-count indictment was made public Wednesday in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York charging the congressman with seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives.

The indictment was returned Tuesday under seal by a federal grand jury sitting in Central Islip, New York. Santos was arrested Wednesday morning and will be arraigned in the afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Arlene R. Lindsay at the federal courthouse in Central Islip, New York. He currently is being held at that federal courthouse.

“This indictment seeks to hold Santos accountable for various alleged fraudulent schemes and brazen misrepresentations,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement.

“Taken together, the allegations in the indictment charge Santos with relying on repeated dishonesty and deception to ascend to the halls of Congress and enrich himself. He used political contributions to line his pockets, unlawfully applied for unemployment benefits that should have gone to New Yorkers who had lost their jobs due to the pandemic, and lied to the House of Representatives. My Office and our law enforcement partners will continue to aggressively root out corruption and self-dealing from our community’s public institutions and hold public officials accountable to the constituents who elected them.”

As Mike Cernovich points out, two of the criminal charges the DOJ has indicted Santos with include a pair of simple unemployment payments of $564.

Republican George Santos’ indictment includes criminal charges for two, $564 unemployment payments.

I had to zoom in to make sure I was reading it correctly and that it wasn’t missing zeros.

$564! pic.twitter.com/3c6QgbLBOM

— Cernovich (@Cernovich) May 10, 2023

CNN gushed over the arrest of Santos Wednesday morning while refusing to mention the bombshell released by Rep. James Comer (R-KY) and the House Oversight Committee earlier today.

WATCH:

Sean Davis, a conservative commentator and CEO of The Federalist, argued that the DOJ is deliberately choosing to charge Santos at the exact moment that the House Oversight Committee announced its bombshell findings in a probe of the Biden family’s foreign influence peddling scheme.

They’re deliberately charging Santos in the middle of the House GOP conference detailing the Biden family’s corruption to make clear to you that they are in charge and that they will arrest (or run interference) for anyone they want, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) May 10, 2023