On Friday, Santos appeared within the federal courthouse in Central Islip, Lengthy Island, and pleaded not responsible to all the costs, in response to a spokeswoman for the U.S. legal professional’s workplace, Danielle Haas. The decide overseeing the case, Joanna Seybert, set a trial date for early September 2024, about two months earlier than the overall election.
Santos, who didn’t return a textual content message looking for remark Friday, has stated he plans to serve his full time period in workplace and search reelection subsequent 12 months. His lawyer, Joseph Murray, declined to remark.
Earlier this week, 5 Republicans from New York launched a decision to expel Santos; the matter is predicted to be voted upon subsequent week.
Shortly after Santos gained an open seat in a swing district that President Biden carried in 2020, the New York Occasions revealed quite a few falsehoods in Santos’s biography, together with the companies the place he claimed to have labored and schools from which he stated he graduated.
Santos admitted to embellishing his résumé however continued to make extra claims about his background that would not be verified or have been outright disproved. Officers on the prestigious highschool he claimed to have attended briefly, Horace Mann, stated they by no means heard of him, and the Ahead, a Jewish information outlet, forged doubt on his claims of being a descendant of Holocaust survivors.
That later declare led New York Republicans to name for Santos to resign, which he rebuffed. In Might, Home Democrats sought to expel Santos however Republicans, who maintain a slim majority, referred the matter to the Home Ethics committee. Final month, amid the most recent fees towards Santos, his Republican colleagues from New York stated they might push a decision to expel him.
One Republican seeking to expel Santos, Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.), stated he raised the problem with the newly elected Home Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). “He stated do what you suppose is correct and do what’s proper in your district,” D’Esposito stated of his assembly with Johnson.
When requested Thursday on Fox in regards to the decision to expel Santos, Johnson stated, “George Santos is due due course of.”
“If we’re going to expel individuals from Congress simply because they’re charged with a criminal offense, or accused, that’s an issue,” he added.
Santos, for his half, says he’s looking for reelection. His marketing campaign refunded extra money than it raised within the final submitting interval final month. On Thursday, he despatched blended messages on X, writing, “All the pieces has an finish life.” Hours later, he wrote to supply “clarification.” No, he’s not resigning and, “I’m entitled to due course of and never a predetermined end result as some are looking for.”
Talking on the social media platform Areas on Thursday evening, Santos conflated his effort to show his innocence in federal court docket together with his colleagues’ effort to expel him from Congress.
“If this movement passes, I believe it’s a transparent indication that this nation has now gone down the drain,” Santos stated.
He added: “Everyone is harmless till confirmed responsible. It’s the authorities’s burden to show you responsible. Sadly a few of my colleagues need to be decide, jury and executioner and deny me the proper to due course of.”