Republican lawmaker Rep. George Santos was arrested Wednesday morning and will be arraigned in the afternoon on federal charges including fraud and lying to Congress, the Department of Justice said, marking a significant escalation in the many legal and ethical probes Santos has faced since taking office.
The 13-count indictment was unsealed Wednesday. Santos faces seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds and two counts of lying to the House of Representatives, the Department of Justice said in a statement.
The charges against Santos aim to hold the freshman lawmaker accountable for numerous alleged "fraudulent schemes and brazen misrepresentations,” said Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
"Taken together, the allegations in the indictment charge Santos with relying on repeated dishonesty and deception to ascend to the halls of Congress and enrich himself," Peace said.
Santos' indictment and arrest are the latest development in the saga of his rise and fall, from his surprise flip of a New York seat to the House of Representatives in the 2022 midterms to the swift unraveling of his supposed life story. Santos' exaggerations and fabrications about his personal and professional life — revealed in large part after his election to the U.S. House — rapidly elevated the freshman lawmaker's national profile, while drawing intense legal and ethical scrutiny.
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