Politicians constantly lie and break the law without consequence. It’s almost become a joke among Americans.
That’s why no one expected this Congressman to face five years in prison.
Republican New York Rep.-elect George Santos has made major headlines since being elected to the House of Representatives.
Santos has been accused of lying extensively about his background in an attempt to drum up support for his run for Congress.
The Republican Jewish Coalition claimed Santos represented himself as of Jewish descent and a position paper uncovered by Axios found Santos labelled himself an “American Jew.”
Not only that, but he said that his grandparents fled Nazi persecution in the Holocaust.
In response, Santos said he referred to himself as “Jew-ish” rather than Jewish – in fact, he’s Catholic and his grandparents were born in Brazil.
The other bizarre claim came from a tweet that was found by reporters on Wednesday where Mr. Santos said that his mother had been killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York’s Twin Towers.
After five months, he sent another tweet. In that message, he got a new death date for his mother: December 23, 2016.
Of course, none of this is criminal, and politicians lie through their teeth every election cycle.
But Santos was just sucker punched with a lawsuit from Brazil that could land him in jail.
Prosecutors in Brazil said Monday that there are new fraud charges against Santos as he gets ready to be sworn into Congress.
The New York Times says that in 2008, a stolen checkbook led to fraud charges being brought against Santos in Brazil. These charges had been put on hold until now because authorities said they couldn’t find Santos.
Santos has been shown to be a habitual liar who made many false claims during his campaign for Congress. In 2009, he admitted to the fraud on a Brazilian social media board. Court records show that he spent close to $700 at a small clothing store with a stolen checkbook. He then posted, “I know I screwed up, but I want to pay.”
In an interview with The New York Post, he denied being a criminal. He said that he was not a criminal anywhere in the world, including Brazil.
But in 2011, a judge agreed with the fraud charge against Santos and told him to answer the case. By that time, he had made it back to the U.S.
Reports say that Brazilian prosecutors will send a request to the U.S. Department of Justice for Santos to answer the charge. The request will come from Brazil’s Justice Ministry. If Santos doesn’t defend himself in the Brazilian case, he could be tried even though he is not there.
If found guilty of fraud, Santos could spend up to five years in prison and pay a fine.
American authorities are also looking into Santos’s charitable donations, voter registration, and financial history to see if anything doesn’t add up.
Still, he will be sworn in as Representative for New York’s 3rd Congressional District on Tuesday.
Stay tuned to the Federalist Wire.
