George Santos, the congressman for New York’s third district, surrendered himself to authorities at a federal court on Long Island on Wednesday morning and was subsequently arrested. The charges against Santos include seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives.
Santos, who won his election after a campaign that was marred with lies about his past, has been criticized by his own constituents as an “imposter.” The charges against him represent a rapid fall from grace for the 34-year-old politician, who had defeated Democrat Robert Zimmerman by a margin of 54 per cent to 46 per cent in the November 2022 elections.
Since his swearing-in as a congressman in January, revelations about Santos’ past have continued to surface. The most recent report revealed that Santos had been charged with writing bad checks to purchase puppies from Amish farmers in 2017. Although Santos has apologized for what he described as “résumé embellishment,” he has refused to resign.
