Politics
George Santos Is Expected to Plead Guilty to Crimes, Avoiding a Trial
Mr. Santos intends to enter a guilty plea and sidestep a federal trial, according to people familiar with the case.
George Santos, the disgraced former Republican congressman from New York whose penchant for lying led to one of the oddest sideshows in modern U.S. politics, is expected to plead guilty to federal charges on Monday.
According to two lawyers and two other people with knowledge of the case, Mr. Santos intends to enter a guilty plea at a 3 p.m. hearing in federal court in Central Islip, N.Y., which was added to the docket Friday night. At the hearing, Mr. Santos is expected to give a statement acknowledging the crimes he has agreed to plead to.
Pleading guilty would allow Mr. Santos to avoid a trial on nearly two dozen charges — including wire fraud, money laundering and stealing public funds — for which he was facing as many as 22 years in prison.
Mr. Santos has repeatedly expressed concern about difficulty selecting an unbiased jury because of his notoriety, which has been fueled by his colorful lies, outrageous schemes and a memorable portrayal on Saturday Night Live.
Lies, Charges and Questions Left in the George Santos Scandal
George Santos, who was expelled from Congress in 2023, has told so many stories they can be hard to keep straight. We cataloged them, including major questions about his personal finances and his campaign fund-raising and spending.
The plea offers a final bookend to the tale of a political underdog catapulted to Congress in 2022, who unraveled into a seemingly bottomless series of falsehoods.