New York, May 10 (EFE).- New York Republican Congressman George Santos, famous for the web of falsehoods he concocted to be elected, pleaded not guilty this Wednesday to the alleged crimes for which he was arrested today and was left in jail. bail of half a million dollars.
Santos appeared before a federal judge after being charged with alleged fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and false testimony, with a total of thirteen charges against him.
Amid great expectation, the legislator pleaded not guilty to all these accusations, according to media present at the court in the town of Central Islip (New York) where the session took place.
Santos was released on probation on $500,000 bail guaranteed by three anonymous people and Judge Anne Y. Shields ruled that his movements should be limited to New York, Washington and places between the two cities.
To travel to other points, the 34-year-old congressman must receive prior approval, the judge decided.
If found guilty, Santos faces up to twenty years in prison for the most serious charges.
The Department of Justice named him today on suspicion of “embezzling donations from his supporters, fraudulently obtaining unemployment benefits and lying to the House of Representatives.”
United States Attorney Breon Peace, of the Eastern District of New York, said that with this movement he intends to “aggressively eradicate corruption and self-deception from public institutions, as well as hold public officials accountable to the constituencies that elected them.”
Peace alluded to (Santos’s) “persistent dishonesty and deception to climb the halls of Congress and enrich himself: he used political donations to line his pockets,” he said graphically, before recalling that he also benefited from unemployment funds ” that should have gone to New Yorkers who lost their jobs in the pandemic.”
The newspaper The New York Times was the first to reveal, shortly after Santos’s election last year, the entire network of falsehoods that adorned his false curriculum, relating to his family, his religion, his studies or his hobbies, and the Santos himself came to admit that he had “embellished” some of those details.
But media scrutiny thereafter revealed more directly criminal behavior related to the use of the money, and while the local GOP chapter solemnly distanced itself from Santos, in Washington the party has been far less strict and has not prevented him from remaining in the seat.
