U.S. Congressman Ritchie Torres (NY-15), who represents parts of Bronx Community District 7, including Norwood, issued a statement on Tuesday evening, May 9, following media reports that federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York have filed criminal charges against U.S. Rep. George Santos (NY-03).

 

CNN reported on Tuesday, May 9, that the Republican lawmaker was expected to appear as soon as Wednesday at federal court in New York’s eastern district, where the charges had been filed under seal. The outlet reported that the exact nature of the charges couldn’t immediately be learned but that the FBI and the Justice Department public integrity prosecutors in New York and Washington were examining allegations of false statements in Santos’ campaign finance filings and other claims.

 

On Wednesday, The New York Law Journal reported that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York unsealed an indictment charging Santos with 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 U.S. House of Representatives. The congressman was arrested Wednesday morning and was expected to be arraigned at the Central Islip federal courthouse.

 

As previously reported, Torres had called for a federal elections commission investigation into the campaign finances of Santos, the recently elected, controversial lawmaker who represents part of northern Nassau County on Long Island and northeast Queens, and who has reportedly admitted to lying about his education and work experience.

 

Reacting to the announcement, Torres said, “The criminal prosecution of U.S. Rep. George Santos is long overdue. He is a pathological liar and lawbreaker who lied to the voters of New York State and defrauded his way into the United States Congress. About 800,000 Americans have been continually deprived of the honest representation they deserve in the People’s House.”

 

Torres continued, “Although the details of the federal prosecution are not yet fully known, one thing is crystal clear – either Rep. Santos must resign or House Republican leadership, under Speaker Kevin McCarthy, must summon the courage to join House Democrats in expelling him. Rep. Santos is a deep rot of corruption at the core of Congress.”

 

Norwood News called both the New York and Washington D.C. offices of the Long Island congressman for comment on the charges. We were advised to send an email which we have done. The congressman had not issued any statement in response to the announced charges on his Twitter account by 7.30 p.m. on Tuesday.

 

Santos had previously played down any suggestion of culpability in relation to the allegations. Meanwhile, referring to the convening of the 118th Congress in Washington D.C. which followed the November 2022 general elections, Torres had previously said of Santos, “Given what we know through public reporting, it is outrageous to me that Mr. Santos was even allowed to be sworn in officially as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.”

 

He added at the time, “But now, there are serious questions that need to be answered surrounding the way in which he supposedly financed his illegitimate campaign for elected office that was built on a web of deception encompassing nearly every facet of his professional and personal life.”

 

The Bronx congressman said the American people and the people of New York’s third congressional district deserved to be represented by someone who served them with honesty, transparency, and integrity. He said Santos had proven himself to be not only “a habitual liar, who’s supremely unqualified to be serving in Congress,” but someone who “desperately” needed to be held accountable for allegedly breaking the public’s trust and potentially breaking the law.

 

In a letter dated January 2023 sent to the chair of the FEC, Torres requested an investigation into what was described as the questionable relationship between Santos’s campaign and RedStone Strategies, described as an unregistered fundraising entity, whose apparent practices on behalf of the Santos campaign may have contributed to multiple violations of the Federal Election Campaigns Act (FECA), as reported recently by The New York Times.

 

Torres was joined both at a January 2023 press conference and in his calls for the FEC investigation by members of Concerned Citizens of NY-03, described as a nonpartisan group of [New York] residents. The group was described by Torres’ office as being organized around the sole mission of upholding congressional integrity and having Santos removed from office. “We are delighted that Rep. Ritchie Torres accepted our invitation to visit NY-03 so we can thank him for his leadership and encourage the FEC to take action to hold Rep. Santos accountable,” said the founder of the group, Jody Kass Finkel, at the time.

 

She continued, “It’s a shame that Speaker Kevin McCarthy thinks it is okay for the more than 700,000 people who live in this district to have no legitimate representation. Rep. Torres understands how insulting it is for us to be told to ‘Live with it. Get over it. Your voice does not
matter.’ We will not be silent and deserve to have a representative who tells us the truth.”

Pete, I know you see yourself in George Santos. Like Santos, you attempted to cheat your way into Congress through lying and law-breaking, only you failed.

Now you’ve been reduced to little more than a white nationalist puppet of Nick Fuentes.

Thanks for the kind words. https://t.co/JLgsn1xL6g

— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) January 19, 2023

McCarthy was elected to the position of House speaker earlier this year on the 15th vote. According to historians, it had been over 100 years since the House failed to choose a speaker on the first ballot. The delay in electing a speaker was due to an ongoing fissure among Republican Party members with the extreme right-wing of the party refusing to back McCarthy initially.

 

The Guardian reported at the time, “The spectacle concluded in stunning fashion during the tense, late-night session on the House floor that erupted in shouting and finger pointing. A Republican lawmaker had to be physically restrained by a colleague.”

 

Meanwhile, Kass Finkel previously said Concerned Citizens of NY-03 looked forward to their ongoing collaboration with Torres “to deliver accountability for the people of our district and to finally get Santos, the squatter, evicted from office once and for all.”

 

The call for an FEC investigation was the latest action Torres took to hold Santos accountable for what he called his growing web of deception, a web which became the subject of multiple law enforcement investigations. The Bronx congressman said he previously filed an official complaint against Santos with the House Ethics Committee and had continued to demand that Republican House leadership publicly explain what they knew, and when, about what he described as “Santos’s seemingly never-ending trail of lies.”

 

"…mother died twice"
"…ancestors survived the holocaust"
"…millionaire overnight"
–@RitchieTorres summarizes the many lies and allegations of Cong. George Santos from memory, while calling for the FEC to investigate his finances.@PIX11News at 5pm @NewsNation at 5:30pm. pic.twitter.com/ADAVN2ZSmX

— Henry Rosoff (@HenryRosoff) January 17, 2023

In the meantime, Torres has sponsored new legislation that would punish candidates for federal office who knowingly lie to voters about their background.

 

As reported by CNN, despite the controversy surrounding his election and widespread calls for his resignation, Santos was appointed to serve on two congressional committees, including the Committee on Small Business and the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. As reported later by NPR, the congressman agreed to voluntarily step down from his committee assignments amid outcry over his seemingly fabricated biography and the ongoing questions about his personal and campaign finances.

 

Norwood News had also reached out in January for a comment from the congressman via the New York number listed on Santos’ website. Our call was answered by a staffer for the office of Republican Congressman Nick LaLota (NY-01) who also represents parts of eastern Long Island. LaLota’s staffer said he had been getting calls for Santos all morning. The staffer said Santos had been forwarding his calls to LaLota’s office.

In response to allegations that GoFundMe blocked him after he allegedly pocketed thousands from a fundraiser for a dying service dog, Santos tweeted the following on Jan. 19, “The reports that I would let a dog die is shocking & insane. My work in animal advocacy was the labor of love & hard work. Over the past 24hr I have received pictures of dogs I helped rescue throughout the years along with supportive messages. These distractions won’t stop me!”

 

He also responded to reports that he allegedly previously performed as a drag queen, saying, “The most recent obsession from the media claiming that I am a drag Queen or ‘performed’ as a drag Queen is categorically false. The media continues to make outrageous claims about my life while I am working to deliver results. I will not be distracted nor fazed by this.”