Global Courant 2023-05-10 21:05:47
House Republican leaders responded Wednesday to the federal indictment against Rep. George Santos, RN.Y., and refused to ask for his resignation while his case goes through court.
“With regard to George Santos, he has already been removed from all of his committees,” said House Majority Leader Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., at Wednesday’s leadership press conference. “There’s a legal process. The charges just came out, we saw some of them this morning. And so there’s a presumption of innocence in America, but they’re serious charges. He’ll go through the legal process.”
A 13-count indictment was made public Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, accusing Santos of seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds and two counts of misconduct. making materially false statements to the House of Representatives.
The indictment was returned sealed Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Central Islip, New York. Santos was arrested Wednesday morning and will arraign before U.S. Magistrate Judge Arlene R. Lindsay at the federal courthouse in Central Islip in the afternoon. He is currently being held in that federal courthouse.
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House Republican Conference Speaker Elise Stefanik and Majority Leader Steve Scalise address the federal indictment against Rep. George Santos. (CBS Pool)
Included in those charges are allegations that Santos committed unemployment benefit fraud with COVID-19 pandemic aid programs. House Republicans are currently working on legislation to extend the statute of limitations for pandemic unemployment and benefit fraud. Scalise was asked by a reporter if the charges against Santos undermine that effort.
“We will continue to work to eradicate fraud,” he replied. “We’re talking about tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud in many federal programs. We noticed this. I mean, they don’t even check social security numbers.”
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Rep. George Santos was indicted on 13 counts, including seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
“You have reports of people, even overseas, getting taxpayer money for things that should only be available to struggling Americans, not to go to drug cartels or to people who just want to get around the system.” Scalise continued. “And so I hope the Democrats will support us in eradicating fraud.”
The majority leader added that Santos will have to “face the charges he has” as the judicial process “plays itself out”.
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Santos is the subject of an investigation by the House Ethics Committee. He first appeared in court on Wednesday. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
House Republican Conference Speaker Elise Stefanik, RN.Y., noted, “Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time a congressman from either party has been indicted.”
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“There are some rules and as the Majority Leader said, (Santos) had voluntarily resigned from his committees,” she said. “We are doing everything we can to ensure we root out any form of fraud when it comes to unemployment and pandemic relief. And we are working to get support from our conference. And it’s good policy, and we urge Democrats to vote for it.”
Fox News’ Danielle Wallace and Tyler Olson contributed to this report.
Chris Pandolfo is a writer for Fox News Digital. Send tips to chris.pandolfo@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @ChrisCPandolfo.
