Republican Representative George Santos appears on Wednesday before a federal court in New York, after charges were brought against him, including fraud, money laundering, and theft of public funds.
According to Al-Hurra correspondent, Santos faces 13 charges before the court, including allegations of fraud, money laundering and theft of public funds, in addition to two charges of making false statements before the House of Representatives.
The reporter indicated that Santos is currently being held in a federal court in New York.
Santos is scheduled to appear later in the day before Judge Arlene Lindsay, in federal court in Central Islip, New York.
The indictment indicates that Santos, 34, urged his supporters to donate to a company under the false pretext that the money would be used to support his campaign, but he used the money for his own expenses.
And US media reported, on Tuesday, that the Ministry of Justice had filed charges against the Republican deputy, but the ministry refused to comment on this news to Agence France-Presse.
The deputy’s big “lies” made political headlines over the past year.
Santos admitted to falsifying much of his resume, including his real name, religion (he claimed to be Jewish), school and professional history, when he ran last year. He also claimed in his autobiography that he worked for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.
And Santos considered that what he had done was a “plasticization of his biography,” and told the New York Post in previous statements, “I am not a criminal.”
He also faced charges of abusing his campaign and sexually harassing a man, the latter claiming that Santos’ office offered him a job before withdrawing it after he rejected the deputy’s advances.
Voters and some Democratic and Republican members of Congress demanded Santos’ resignation, on the background of these facts.
And if Santos was convicted, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy confirmed that he would “look at the charges” before considering the possibility of expelling him from Congress.