New York Republican Congressman George Santos was arrested Wednesday morning and charged with 13 federal offenses, including multiple counts each of wire fraud, money laundering, making materially false statements to Congress, and a single count of stealing public funds.
Who does he think he is, a Biden?
According to CNN, the FBI took Santos into custody on Long Island at the bureau’s Melville office and from there transferred him to a courthouse in Central Islip. Neither Santos’ lawyer nor spokeswoman has responded yet to questions from the press.
The 34-year-old congresscritter has caused quite the stir since his 2022 election win, with a biography so all over the place that it still isn’t clear whether he was born in the U.S. or Brazil, where he confessed to committing check fraud in 2011. He’s also admitted, since his election, to lying about his education and work history.
Santos had apparently told Nassau County Republican Chairman Joseph Cairo Jr. that he was a star on the Baruch College volleyball team, despite never having played on the team or even attended Baruch.
At various times, Santos has claimed to be Jewish (he isn’t), ran an animal charity (he did not), and was nearly the victim of an assassination attempt (he was not).
He may or may not have been a drag queen in his native (or not) Brazil, but there is a photograph of him in drag at a Brazilian pride event.
As my colleague Lincoln Brown wrote earlier this year, “Santos is not the first member of Congress to lie, steal, engage in sexual antics, etc. What makes Santos unique is that he may be one of the only members of Congress to do them all.”
If anyone is fully qualified to serve in Congress, which Mark Twain referred to as the only distinctly American criminal class, it’s George Santos.
In January, Santos gave up his congressional committee assignments, effectively making the first-termer a nonentity.
Whether he’s actually guilty or innocent of any or all of the 13 charges, part of me hopes that Santos beats them all in court. Partly that’s just for the pure partisan thrill of a Republican getting away with just one percent of just one percent of what Democrats, particularly the Biden family crime syndicate, get away with all the time.
But mostly it’s just because Santos is such a colorful character and such a corruptly perfect fit for postmodern Washington D.C., that a long and successful career among his actual peers seems like the perfect end to his fairytale story.
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