George Santos Indicted on 13 Charges
May. 10th, 2023 04:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerLiar-liar-pants-on-fire Rep. George Santos was arrested and indicted today on 13 criminal counts. Among other things, he's charged with fraud, money laundering, lying on financial disclosure forms, misusing campaign funds, and fraudulently obtaining COVID-19 relief funds. He has pleaded not guilty to everything.
I'm pleasantly surprised by today's charges. ...Surprised, because after the astonishing breadth of Santos's lies was revealed by investigative journalism it seemed the system was incapable of doing much about it. Republican leaders in Congress side-stepped taking any disciplinary action against him, passing off responsibility to a committee they just so happened to boot most of the Democrats off and hobble with no budget. While it was clear that no political action in Congress would be taken against Santos— though it easily could have been, and in the past has been for far lesser allegations than those leveled against Santos— it was unclear if, or how fast, legal action would be taken.
Santos, for his part, seized on the speed with which these charges were filed in an outrageous impromptu press conference he held after leaving court today. In a interview filled with sounds of guffaws and laughter from members of the press at his most egregious obvious lies, Santos called the charges a "witch hunt" (hmm, where have we heard that before?) and argued that they're all politically motivated lies. Nevermind that these "lies" are actually well supported by evidence, much of which is from public sources. Santos, further, tried to deflect attention from himself by charging that "the entire Biden family" are receiving illicit payments from unspecified foreigners. As the reporters starting laughing out loud at him he doubled down by claiming the facts of this have been widely reported. ...They haven't, of course. There are no credible facts of that happening. But hey, liars gonna lie.
I'm pleasantly surprised by today's charges. ...Surprised, because after the astonishing breadth of Santos's lies was revealed by investigative journalism it seemed the system was incapable of doing much about it. Republican leaders in Congress side-stepped taking any disciplinary action against him, passing off responsibility to a committee they just so happened to boot most of the Democrats off and hobble with no budget. While it was clear that no political action in Congress would be taken against Santos— though it easily could have been, and in the past has been for far lesser allegations than those leveled against Santos— it was unclear if, or how fast, legal action would be taken.
Santos, for his part, seized on the speed with which these charges were filed in an outrageous impromptu press conference he held after leaving court today. In a interview filled with sounds of guffaws and laughter from members of the press at his most egregious obvious lies, Santos called the charges a "witch hunt" (hmm, where have we heard that before?) and argued that they're all politically motivated lies. Nevermind that these "lies" are actually well supported by evidence, much of which is from public sources. Santos, further, tried to deflect attention from himself by charging that "the entire Biden family" are receiving illicit payments from unspecified foreigners. As the reporters starting laughing out loud at him he doubled down by claiming the facts of this have been widely reported. ...They haven't, of course. There are no credible facts of that happening. But hey, liars gonna lie.
