Former US Representative George Santos pleaded guilty on 19 August 2024 in the Eastern District of New York to one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft, ending a federal prosecution that had been scheduled for trial in September.
Santos, who represented New York’s third congressional district from January 2023 until his expulsion from the House in December that year, admitted in open court to a scheme that ran from 2020 through 2022 and included falsified Federal Election Commission filings, fraudulent loans to his campaign, and the use of campaign-donor credit cards to charge personal expenses.
What the plea covers
Under the plea agreement, Santos accepted responsibility for charging tens of thousands of dollars to donors’ credit cards without authorisation, fabricating fundraising reports that listed phantom donors (some borrowed from his relatives), and misusing campaign funds for personal purchases including designer clothing and rent.
The aggravated identity-theft count carries a mandatory minimum sentence of two years, to be served consecutively to any sentence on the wire-fraud count. The wire-fraud count carries up to 20 years.
A historic expulsion
Santos became only the sixth member ever expelled from the US House of Representatives, in a 311–114 bipartisan vote on 1 December 2023, following the release of a House Ethics Committee report that catalogued years of personal and campaign-finance misconduct. The Brooklyn indictment, originally filed in May 2023 and superseded in October that year, eventually grew to 23 counts.
Two of his former campaign aides, treasurer Nancy Marks and fundraiser Sam Miele, had previously pleaded guilty and cooperated with prosecutors.
Sentencing and restitution
Santos is scheduled to be sentenced in February 2025. Prosecutors have indicated they will seek restitution to donors and to the Federal Election Commission. His attorneys signalled at the plea hearing that they will argue for the statutory minimum.
The case is one of several federal corruption prosecutions of sitting or recent members of the US Congress active in 2024, alongside the bribery trial of Senator Bob Menendez and the indictment of Representative Henry Cuellar.
