Republican Congressman
George Santos of New York is now facing
criminal charges.
Sources telling CNN's
Evan Perez that federal prosecutors
have filed charges
against the New York freshman
and serial liar.
He's expected to appear in court
as soon as tomorrow.
Let's bring in Evan Perez,
who's breaking the story for us.
Evan, tell us more.
What do we know
about the charges specifically?
Well, Jake, right now
we do not know
the exact nature of these charges.
We know that these have been filed
under seal
with the federal court
in the Eastern District of New York.
That's, of course, the court
that has jurisdiction over
representative sentences district,
which is in Queens, in Long Island.
We know that
at this point
he's expected to appear in federal court
to answer these charges
in Islip tomorrow.
That's as soon as tomorrow
in an eastern district of New York.
Now, again, we don't know the charges.
We know that the Justice Department,
public integrity
prosecutors, the FBI,
of course, prosecutors
there in in the U.S.
Attorney's office in Brooklyn
have been investigating the congressman
for a number of allegations,
including charges or claims, rather,
that he falsified some of his campaign
finance filings.
And so those are among
the things that we expect.
Prosecutors
may be able to shed some more light on
when we see these charges
finally announced tomorrow.
Now, this is a congressman,
obviously, Jake,
that you've talked
about many, many times on this program.
He took office just in January.
And in just just a few months, of course,
it's come to light a number,
just a stunning number
of falsehoods and lies that he's told
as part of his campaign
in the lead up to this campaign
and in the years prior.
I'll just recite just a few of them,
including his claim
on his resume
that he worked
at Goldman Sachs and Citibank.
He said that he played
he was a star volleyball player
for Baruch College,
which is where he said he got a degree.
None of those things were true.
He claimed, obviously,
that also that he had Jewish heritage.
Something, again,
that has been shown to be false.
And, you know,
the congressman has repeatedly said
that he is not a criminal,
that he's not been charged with anything.
We do know, though,
in recent weeks
that he did admit
to a fraud charge in Brazil.
Some number of years ago, Jake.
And Leslie Jones once
said on The Daily Show,
Do you know how much you have to lie
to be known
as the lying congressman,
which says something, but of course,
lying to
the public is not necessarily
against the law.
Some of the allegations
you've talking about
obviously aren't
including campaign
finance violations, potentially,
allegedly, and
fraud, stealing from that veteran
who had the sick
dog has Santos or his legal team,
if one exists
Responded to your reporting.
We reached out to Jorge Sanchez's lawyer
this afternoon.
He declined to comment, said
that he's not going to comment
on any of these allegations
until until he sees fit.
We did see our Capitol Hill
team, Manu Raju and others saw him
walking the halls earlier today.
He did not
tell us anything about what
his plans are for travel
to New York tomorrow.
But again, that's where we expect
that he's
going to be able to
to answer these charges
for the first time Jake.
In the Eastern District of New York.
Let's bring in CNN's Manu Raju.
Manu, Santa is also under investigation
on Capitol Hill
before the House Ethics Committee.
But, of course, that's a rather
toothless organization.
Generally speaking, this
this seems more significant.
Yeah, no question about it.
And also,
it will be interesting
to see
how Kevin McCarthy
the speaker, responds to this,
because for some time
he has now called on Jorge Santos
to resign, in large part
because if Santos were to resign,
this would open up
a special election
in a district
that Joe Biden carried in 20, 20,
something that could potentially flip
to the Democrats and narrow
Kevin McCarthy's
already razor thin majority,
which is why McCarthy for some time
has said,
let's let the investigations play out.
He has pointed to the House
ethics investigation
as one
in which he will ultimately decide on
how to respond to Jorge Santos,
whether he would
call him to resign, saying,
let's see what the House Ethics
Committee comes up with.
We do know that the Ethics Committee
is pressing ahead
with this investigation.
How long that
they they'll come to reach
any sort of conclusion
remains to be seen.
But now that he has been indicted,
Jorge Santos,
the question will be
whether that changed
the leadership calculation
or whether Kevin McCarthy
will come out and call
for Jorge Santos to resign.
There are rules within the House
Republican Conference
that if for any member
who has been indicted,
they automatically lose
their committee assignments.
Recall, though, earlier this year, Santos
ultimately voluntarily
stepped down
from his committee assignments
after discussions with McCarthy.
So whether there be
any other punitive measures remain
to be seen.
Also uncertain
whether Santos will try
to fight this in court
or whether he will try
to run for reelection
He did announce just a few weeks ago
he planned to run for reelection,
despite the mounting opposition
from Republican leaders back home
and also many within his own conference
still said that he would try to fight
and try to win this electorally.
Will that change his mindset
now that he has been indicted?
All big questions
but also a big question for the speaker.
What will he do about this
controversial member
who has now been indicted
within his conference?
Something that can narrow his majority.
If he were to step aside,
all big things that will certainly be
on the speaker's mind in Sanchez's
mind in the days ahead.
Well, I think you answered your question
and in it.
But I hear what you're saying.
Let's bring in former
federal prosecutor Ali Hoenig.
How serious of a legal case
could this be?
Well, Jake, I guess
that will
be the big thing
that we find out tomorrow
when we take a look at this indictment.
Important to understand
it is not a crime to lie to the public.
It is not a crime to lie
about what you're going to do
when you get an office.
It's not a crime to lie
about your background.
What is a crime, however,
and what might be the case here,
we don't know
is the lie
in your Federal Election
Commission filing to lie
about your campaign expenditures.
And you'll recall
there was reporting
that George Santos's campaign claimed
this whole series
of expenditures for $199
because the limit over
which you have to detail
those expenditures is $200.
I think that was awfully suspicious.
So I'd be looking for some sort
of official false statements charge here.
Again, we're speculating,
but based on what the public reporting is
CNN's chief legal analyst Lara
Koch is also joining us again.
Laura, sorry,
I thought you
were going to get the hour off
after all of our Trump conversation.
But now we have another legal matter
dealing with a different
a different line New York politician.
How is this going to play out in court
when Santos appears as soon as tomorrow?
Obviously, one of the charges
but walk us through the choreography,
if you would,
Well, first, we're going to know
more about the actual charges.
If it's sealed, of course,
if they're going to release the public
and what a judge would know
about an arraignment
and whether this is
going to be a multiple indictment
or one or more.
Remember,
you can oftentimes amend an indictment
to include more offenses later on.
There might be conversations already
about the grand jury testimony
that came
in, if there was a grand jury impaneled
in this particular matter.
And we're going to learn
more about this, frankly,
likely as Jorge Santos does.
But as Ali articulated,
the nature of the charges
being the number of the charges
might not be known,
but certainly
the substance of what we know to be
the underlying cause for
the investigation is
has been quite clear.
And if you follow the trail of money,
the idea of thinking about
whether transparency and accountability
can be actually served
for the electorate,
that's going to be the key
for any campaign
finance or election related matter.
What was known,
what was relayed to the public?
And did the electorate
have a meaningful opportunity
to elect a candidate
of their choosing based on verifiable,
truthful information?
We take election related matters
very seriously in this country
because we want to have that level
of transparency and accountability
and the access
to having someone you want an office
and remember.
Speaker McCarthy was very reluctant
to say
what they would do about this seat,
trying to kick
the can down the road to suggest that
if there was a crime that occurred
then they would take action.
Well,
if the domino begins to fall
and the charges come in criminally.
The question I have is
how will this actually
manifest politically?
And for the questions that reasons
that even said
the idea of having an open seat
in this instance
when you had the potential
for a Democrat to come in
and claim it,
it's going to be quite odd
in this new Congress.
And Ali Hoenig,
I think I know the answer to this,
but but can Santo serve in Congress
as this legal case proceeds?
Can he served in Congress
if he's convicted?
He can, Jake.
The only way to
get rid of a member of the U.S.
Congress, the House of the Senate
is by expulsion.
Now, the Constitution tells us that
that requires
a two thirds vote of that body.
So you would have to see Republicans
join with Democrats to do that.
There have only been five members
of the U.S.
House ever
expelled in the history of this country.
Three of them
were Confederates, former
Confederate shortly after the Civil War.
The fourth was somebody from Pennsylvania
from outside of the Philly area
who was expelled
in the seventies of the eighties.
And the fifth was
a congressman named James Traficant
who had been convicted of a crime.
So there's going to be a big question
here for Kevin McCarthy
and other Republicans,
which is
now that we have reporting
and we'll see tomorrow
that George Santos has been indicted.
Are you willing to allow him
to keep on serving
who is the one from the Philly area?
Was that was that Ozzie Myers?
Michael Meyers.
Michael Meyers is the name Ozzie Meyers.
Yes. Yeah, that was my congressman, man.
I know that.
That's that's that's it.
That's not outside.
That's in Philly.
We're we're proud of our boy.
He's in prison again
for a different offense, by the way.