Federal Officials Request to Delay Hearing for Representative Santos

Federal prosecutors asked to push back a Thursday hearing in the criminal fraud case of Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., revealing in a Tuesday court filing that both “parties have continued to discuss possible paths forward.”

Santos, 35, was indicted on 13 counts in May and is accused of wire fraud, money laundering, stealing public funds, and lying to Congress. He has pleaded not guilty.

The next hearing in the case was scheduled for Thursday at noon in Central Islip, New York, but prosecutors and Santos are jointly requesting to reschedule that conference for Oct. 27 at 10:30 a.m.

“Since the last status conference in this matter on June 30, 2023, the defendant has continued to review the voluminous discoverable material previously produced by the government and requires additional time to continue reviewing that material,” prosecutors wrote.

“In addition, the government anticipates making another substantial production of discoverable material … this week. Defense counsel has indicated that he will need additional time to review that material as well. Further, the parties have continued to discuss possible paths forward in this matter. The parties wish to have additional time to continue those discussions.”

The filing from federal prosecutors comes less than two weeks after Santos, a first-term congressman, told NewsNation that he wouldn’t rule out taking a plea deal that would require his resignation from Congress.

During the interview, Santos said that “right now” he’s not considering entering a guilty plea. “I’m not making any assertions right now,” he said, according to Mediaite. “Like I said earlier … right now, the answer is no. But you just never know.”

U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace has previously said that the indictment “seeks to hold Santos accountable for various alleged fraudulent schemes and brazen misrepresentations” of his background in his pursuit of public office.

“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. “He used political contributions to line his pockets, unlawfully applied for unemployment benefits that should have gone to New Yorkers who had lost their jobs due to the pandemic, and lied to the House of Representatives.

“My Office and our law enforcement partners will continue to aggressively root out corruption and self-dealing from our community’s public institutions and hold public officials accountable to the constituents who elected them,” Peace added.