Federal prosecutors on Tuesday unsealed new charges against New York Rep. George Santos connected to allegedly charging tens of thousands of dollars to his donors' credit cards without their knowledge, stealing his family members’ identities and inflating his campaign finance reports to federal election authorities by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

What You Need To Know

  • New York Rep. George Santos, a Republican, faces ten new federal charges connected to stealing the identities of family members and donors, as well as charging unauthorized payments to donors' credit cards

  • He is also charged with inflating his campaign finance reports to federal election authorities by hundreds of thousands of dollars
  • Santos pleaded not guilty to 13 other federal charges in May, bringing the total charges the embattled New York Republican now faces to 23. The original charges still apply, the DOJ said
  • At one point, Santos allegedly charged $12,000 to a donor’s credit card and eventually transferred “the vast majority” of the money into his personal bank account

“As alleged, Santos is charged with stealing people’s identities and making charges on his own donors’ credit cards without their authorization, lying to the FEC and, by extension, the public about the financial state of his campaign," U.S. Attorney Breon Pearce said in a statement. "Santos falsely inflated the campaign’s reported receipts with non-existent loans and contributions that were either fabricated or stolen."

Santos is alleged to have stolen the personal identity and financial information of his campaign donors to make over $44,000 in charges over the course of eight months without their knowledge or approval. Often these donations exceeded federal campaign contribution limits, prosecutors said, so Santos would falsely list the money as coming from himself, relatives or other donors.

At one point, Santos allegedly charged $12,000 to a donor’s credit card and eventually transferred “the vast majority” of the money into his personal bank account.

Santos on Wednesday vehemently denied the charges, telling reporters he will not accept a plea deal.

“The answer is no. I will not take a plea deal,” he said. “I can prove my innocence.”

He also refused to resign and maintained that he is still running for reelection.

Santos pleaded not guilty to 13 other federal charges in May, bringing the total charges the embattled New York Republican now faces to 23. The original charges still apply, the DOJ said.

Beyond enriching himself, one reason behind the alleged schemes involving the stolen identities of family members and the use of campaign contributors’ credit cards to “fraudulently inflate his campaign coffers” was to show national Republican decision-makers his campaign was worthy of supporting, prosecutors said. At one point, Santos said he loaned his campaign $500,000, but prosecutors say the loan never existed and he had less than $8,000 in his personal and business bank accounts.

Santos needed to raise $250,000 over a three-month period to be eligible for congressional Republicans’ financial and logistical resources, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. To do so, Santos worked with his treasurer Nancy Marks, a longtime fixture on Long Island Republican campaigns, to inflate fundraising data and lie to the Federal Election Commission, prosecutors alleged.

Marks pleaded guilty to a single conspiracy charge last week and admitted in court she and Santos falsely filed campaign finance reports and lied to the FEC about a $500,000 loan Santos reported lending to his campaign that did not exist. He did not have $8,000 to spare, much less $500,000, prosecutors alleged in their indictment on Tuesday.

In the short-term, the alleged ruse was successful. Santos’ campaign received the backing of national Republican leadership, something he maintained at least up until Tuesday. With a slim majority in the House, recently ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other House GOP leaders have declined to call for Santos to resign or be removed even after he was initially charged in May.

Beyond his legal woes, Santos has been accused by journalists, acquaintances, business partners, fellow Republicans and former friends of lying for years about his career on Wall Street, academic credentials, athletic achievements, Hollywood roles, racial heritage, being the descendant of Holocaust survivors, losing his mother to the 9/11 terrorist attack and losing employees in the 2016 Orlando mass shooting at a gay nightclub that left 49 people dead.

He also signed a deal in May, one day after pleading not guilty on Long Island, with Brazilian prosecutors to avoid facing prosecution for forging two stolen checks in 2008.

Scores of candidates have entered the race to beat Santos on both sides of the aisle, including former Rep. Tom Suozzi, a Democrat who abandoned the seat last year to make an unsuccessful run for New York governor. Suozzi announced his campaign on Tuesday, prior to the charges being unsealed.

Hours before the new charges were made public, Santos told an editor for the Queens Chronicle, a local New York City local newspaper, that his district will remain in Republican control after next year’s election “whether it’s me or anyone else.”