Republican Values: Rep. Santos Hit With Superseding Indictment

 

Things just got a lot worse for Republican Rep. George "Devolder/ Kitara" Santos (Fraudster-MAGA):

U.S. Rep. George Santos stole the identities of donors to his campaign and then used their credit cards to ring up tens of thousands of dollars in unauthorized charges, according to a new indictment filed Tuesday.

He then wired some of the money to his own personal bank account, prosecutors said, while using the rest to inflate his campaign coffers.

The 23-count indictment replaces one filed in May against the New York Republican charging him with embezzling money from his campaign and lying to Congress about his wealth, among other offenses.

In the updated indictment, prosecutors accuse Santos of charging more than $44,000 to his campaign over a period of months using cards belonging to contributors without their knowledge. In one case, he charged $12,000 to a contributor’s credit card and transferred the “vast majority” of that money into his personal bank account, prosecutors said.

Santos is also accused of falsely reporting to the Federal Elections Commission that he had loaned his campaign $500,000 when he actually hadn’t given anything and had less than $8,000 in the bank. The fake loan was an attempt to convince Republican Party officials that he was a serious candidate, worth their financial support, the indictment said. [snip]

The new indictment alleges a multi-part fraud by Santos, who allegedly duped both his donors and his family members.

In one instance, Santos allegedly swiped the credit card information of one of his contributors, who had already donated $5,800 to the campaign, to give himself an additional $15,800 in payments, the indictment said. Because the unauthorized charges exceeded contribution limits under federal law, Santos listed the additional payments as coming from his own unwitting relatives, prosecutors allege.

The credit card fraud scheme began in December 2021, prosecutors said, shortly after Santos failed to qualify for a Republican Party program that would have provided financial and logistical support to his second congressional campaign...

Of course, the Republican Party is a perfect fit for Santos, or whatever his name is this week: mentally and morally damaged frauds, grifters, charlatans, creeps, dimbulbs, liars that they are, in a cult led by the epitome of all of those elements.  What next?  Make him Speaker!

(Photo:  Santos flashing the white power sign, with a half-hearted "heil"/ Evelyn Hockstein, REUTERS)