Former Rep. George Santos’ (R-New York) request to dismiss some of the fraud charges against him was declined by Federal Judge Joanna Seybert.
Santos’ motion was denied by Seybert on July 19 as it was found to not meet the necessary legal standards.
In an attempt to clear his name, Santos made a request to dismiss the charges of aggravated identity theft and theft of public money, which are among the 23 charges filed against him.
Santos stands accused of aggravated identity theft, as it is alleged that he utilized credit card details of campaign donors to make contributions without their consent.
According to prosecutors, he not only tried to conceal the origin of the funds to evade campaign contribution limits but also falsely attributed the donations to some of his relatives and associates without obtaining their consent.
According to court filings, Santos’ legal team argued that the aggravated identity theft charges were baseless. They contended that the accusations were merely about overspending on credit card accounts that were willingly provided to Santos.
The argument that the former representative only “used” the credit card information was dismissed by prosecutors. According to their filings, they claimed that he had “abused” it, with the specific intent of defrauding it to make his campaign appear more financially secure.
He is facing a charge of theft of public funds which is connected to the purported fraud he committed with regards to his unemployment benefits.
According to Santos’ legal team, the charge against him has erroneously merged various alleged criminal activities and transactions.
Courts have mentioned that the combination of certain charges may not be permissible for various reasons. One of the reasons is the likelihood of jurors convicting a defendant on a charge while believing that the defendant is guilty of only a portion of it.
According to the prosecutors involved in the case of the former representative, the charge of stealing public funds is based on “a single continuing scheme.”
The trial of Santos is set to take place in Central Islip, New York in September.
Santos made an announcement on April 23rd that he has decided to end his independent campaign for a congressional seat.
He had plans to run for New York’s First Congressional District as an independent candidate in March.
During the first quarter, he did not raise any funds, as revealed by a recent campaign filing.
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The former representative clarified within an hour that the content would not be of an adult nature.
