Santos says plea deal ‘not off the table’

Former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) said Sunday that a plea deal with federal prosecutors is “not off the table” as he faces 23 charges for allegedly inflating his campaign finance reports and misleading donors, among other accusations.

“Look, in the essence of everything going on, a plea is not off the table, obviously, at this point,” he told Marcia Kramer on CBS New York’s “The Point.”

“Trial is not until September and a plea is not off the table. So there’s obviously conversations taking place, especially after what happened in Congress, and we’ll see,” he added.

Santos was initially charged with 13 criminal counts on allegations that he misled donors, fraudulently received unemployment benefits and lied on his House financial disclosures. In a superseding indictment in October, he was charged with 10 additional counts of fraudulently inflating his campaign finance reports and charging his donors’ credit cards without authorization.

Santos pleaded not guilty to both sets of counts.

When pressed on what concessions he would be willing to make to federal prosecutors to avoid going to jail, Santos said he did not know what he could give them in a plea deal.

“I have no idea what I can do. It’s — I’m gonna negotiate the best I can,” he added.

Santos also said Sunday he did not know if he would have been able to make a plea deal before he was expelled from Congress, but he added that federal prosecutors gave him “far better treatment” than what he received from the House Ethics Committee.

Federal prosecutors signaled in a new court filing Monday that they hope to resolve Santos’ case in a plea deal instead of a trial, which is currently scheduled for Sept. 9, 2024.

“The parties are presently engaged in plea negotiations with the goal of resolving this matter without the need for a trial,” prosecutors wrote in court documents filed Monday afternoon.

Santos was expelled from the House earlier this month in a historic vote after a scathing report from the Ethics Committee found the embattled Republican “blatantly stole from his campaign” and “deceived donors into providing what they thought were contributions to his campaign but were in fact payments for his personal benefit.”

The former lawmaker had previously said the possibility of him accepting a plea deal is “not on the table” shortly after prosecutors unsealed their second indictment against him. He also said at the time that his former campaign treasurer reaching a plea deal with prosecutors was “not surprising.”

“People will say whatever they have to say, cut whatever deal they have to cut in order to save their hide. And this isn’t surprising,” Santos told CNN’s Manu Raju last month. “I don’t know why people are so stuck.”

Updated at 4:01 pm.