Former congressman George Santos — who was expelled from the House after being caught in a web of fabrications about his background and money grifting — is expected to plead guilty to multiple felony counts Monday, according to a person familiar with the matter.
A plea agreement would mean Santos does not have to stand trial in federal court in Long Island next month on 23 counts including wire fraud, money laundering and theft of public funds.
Santos is scheduled to appear for a pretrial conference Monday afternoon in Federal District Court in Central Islip, N.Y., according to court records.
Last December, court papers revealed that Santos had been negotiating a plea agreement to settle the case.
Messages seeking comments from a lawyer representing Santos were not returned.
In May 2023, Santos was charged with 13 counts related to allegedly defrauding his donors, using their money for his personal benefit and wrongfully claiming unemployment benefits. He pleaded not guilty and called the investigation a “witch hunt” at the time.
Santos also pleaded not guilty to 10 additional charges last October. Those additional charges accused him of stealing the identities of family members and using donors’ credit cards to spend thousands of dollars.
Days before the additional charges were brought last year, Nancy Marks, treasurer for the Santos campaign, pleaded guilty to fraud conspiracy and implicated him in a scheme to embellish his campaign finance reports with a fake loan and fake donors. The next month, another Santos staffer, Samuel Miele, pleaded guilty to a wire fraud charge, conceding that he had claimed to be chief of staff to former House speaker Kevin McCarthy to attract donors to Santos’s campaign.
Santos was elected to Congress in 2022 as a Republican to represent portions of Queens and Long Island. He was expelled from Congress on Dec. 1, 2023, after a lengthy investigation found rampant misuse of campaign funds and ethical issues, marking the first time the chamber had moved to remove a member in more than 20 years.
Santos has lied about many elements of his background, including his ethnicity, family hardships, his education and past jobs. Since his expulsion from Congress, he’s been making videos on Cameo, an app that lets fans buy personalized video messages from celebrities and other public figures.
News of an expected plea deal was first reported Friday night by Talking Points Memo.
This is a developing story. It will be updated.
Jaclyn Peiser, Isaac Stanley-Becker and Anumita Kaur contributed to this report.