George Santos (R-Long Island) Hasn't Announced A Plea Deal Yet-- And Hasn't Fled The Country

It wasn’t that long ago when there was a flood of George Santos news a few times a week. And now… radio silence. What happened with the most electorally— and judicially— vulnerable member of Congress? Sure we get an addition to the long list of Republicans signing up to primary him. Yesterday it was some guy named Greg Hach; a few days earlier it was some guy named Kellen Curry. Now there are officially 6 Republicans in the race and another 9— including the establishment choice, state Sen Jack Martins— running, not to mention official candidate Phil Grillo, a MAGAt crackpot with 69 Twitter followers, who was indicted as a J-6 rioter.

There are also a lot of Democrats in the race or talking about getting into the race— but no one that looks too exciting to me… and several that looks really horrible. Josh Lafazan, for example, is just a rotten Republican with a “D” next to his name for some mysterious reason.

Anyway, yesterday the NY Times had a new Santos update. No, he hasn’t skipped the country. Instead he missed a financial-reporting deadline (Sunday), for which he had already gotten a 90-day extension. Recall, he’s been indicted on 13 felony charges. "There has been," wrote Grace Ashford and Michael Gold, "considerable speculation about whether Santos’ financial disclosure might shed light on the source of the more than $700,000 he lent to his campaign." Although I can’t imagine how he’s going to explain money he got from the Kremlin. "Santos had maintained that he earned the money legally through his company, the Devolder Organization, which he said acts as a paid go-between in deals involving wealthy people. But federal prosecutors claim that Santos falsified the disclosures he filed as a House candidate in 2020 and 2022, saying that he misrepresented his income from the Devolder Organization and the amounts in his bank accounts. They also say that he failed to report money he earned by defrauding the unemployment system, and from a Florida investment company that was shuttered after regulators accused it of operating as a Ponzi scheme."

If Santos reports further income from the Devolder Organization in his 2023 disclosure, he should also disclose the names of his clients— something he has yet to do.

…Nothing is ever certain concerning Santos, especially when it comes to finances. But this is not the first time that he has filed his disclosures late. Though he began raising large sums of money in 2021 for his 2022 House campaign, Santos did not file the required disclosure until Sept. 9, 2022, shortly before he was elected in November.

In the unlikely event that Santos does not file at all, he could face a civil penalty of up to $71,316.

Santos is due back in the Capitol from August recess on Sept. 12. His next court hearing will take place before that; he is set to appear before a judge in Central Islip on Sept. 7. He has pleaded not guilty.

This afternoon, the same Gold and Ashford reported that the same criminal Santos depended on most, career criminal Samuel Miele (his former campaign manager), has been charged with 4 counts of wire fraud and ”aggravated” identity theft, having impersonated McCarthy’s chief of staff, Dan Meyer, all for tricking wealthy GOP donors into contributing to Santos. He’s out on $150,000 bond. Santos gave him a 15% kickback on all contributions he was able to get while he impersonated McCarthy’s top aide (reportedly around $100,000).

Prosecutors from the Eastern District of New York were also the ones to have indicted Santos and no doubt they plan to flip Miele and get him to testify against Santos. The NY Post reported today that “Prosecutors informed the court that the separate Santos and Miele cases ‘may be presumptively related because the facts of each case arise out of overlapping events.’ They also suggested that it ‘may be appropriate’ to have one judge overseeing both cases as a result.” If Miele wants a lighter sentence, he'll soon be singing all about Santos.