Rep. George Santos (R-NY) arrived on Tuesday morning in front of the lower Manhattan courthouse expected to arraign former President Donald Trump that afternoon in a show of support against an expected indictment on charges of falsifying business records.
Trump himself announced via social media last week that he had reason to expect a grand jury to indict him on unspecified charges. On Monday night, Yahoo News published an alleged leak claiming Trump would face “34 felony counts for falsification of business records.”
The details of what Trump will stand accused of will not become public until the publication of the indictment, expected on Tuesday, but many reports indicate that the counts are related to allegations that Trump hid a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016.
Trump called for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is overseeing the case, to be indicted himself on Monday in response to the leak to Yahoo News of the alleged charges.
“Now, if he wants to really clean up his reputation, he will do the honorable thing and, as District Attorney, INDICT HIMSELF,” Trump wrote on social media. “He will go down in Judicial history, and his Trump Hating wife will be, I am sure, very proud of him!”
Rep. Santos has publicly condemned the unprecedented indictment of a former president and called for similar criminal proceedings against the family of current President Joe Biden, particularly his son Hunter Biden, who evidence for years has linked to potentially illicit dealings with foreign corporations and governments.
Rep. Santos’ arrival in front of the courthouse – where hundreds of both supporters and opponents of the president had begun convening in the early morning hours – caused pandemonium, as reporters mobbed the Congressman and asked him for comment on the situation.
Rep. Santos told reporters that he was concerned that the indictment set a “precedent” of political persecution in the United States.
“This starts a precedent, it’s about democracy … what stops the next prosecutor in two years?” he asked.
In a separate exchange with reporters, who asked Rep. Santos if a president should be “above the law,” the Congressman replied “no,” but condemned Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for pursuing charges against Trump while maintaining an extensive record of refusing to prosecute felony charges or downgrading severe allegations.
“Is this DA going to start criminalizing criminals?” Rep. Santos can be heard responding in the video.
“Where’s Hunter Biden’s indictment? Two years of a laptop full of [a] treasure trove of crime,” the Congressman continued, attempting to speak over the mob of journalists before ultimately asking them, “Are you ok?”
The laptop Rep. Santos referenced is a computer that was reportedly abandoned at a repair shop in Delaware whose contents surfaced during the 2020 election. The New York Post, which broke the story, reported that documents on the laptop revealed that then-candidate Joe Biden had direct involvement in Hunter Biden’s questionable business dealings in Ukraine – directly disproving Joe Biden’s denials that he had any links to Hunter’s work.
Of particular concern to corruption investigators is how the younger Biden ended up on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, with seemingly no relevant work experience, and his visit to China preceding the signing of a $1.5 billion deal with a subsidiary of the Bank of China in 2013.
Rep. Santos has used his social media presence repeatedly to argue that the indictment of Trump reveals a double standard in how Democrat-led legal systems pursue investigations against conservatives and to join a growing chorus of voices demanding legal investigations into President Biden for potential acts of corruption.
“The [Department of Justice] DOJ has had 2+ years to build a strong case against Hunter Biden and many members of the Biden family,” Rep. Santos wrote on Saturday. “Instead the weaponized justice system is going after conservatives with political bias. If they can do it to Trump imagine what they can do to us?”
Sources within the New York legal system told NBC News in December that law enforcement had opened an investigation into Rep. Santos, particularly concerning “potential irregularities involving financial disclosures and loans he made to his campaign while running for Congress.
Rep. Santos has admitted to “embellishing [his] résumé,” including false claims about his university education and falsely claiming he had worked for Goldman Sachs, among other corporations. In December, Rep. Santos said he spoke openly of the fabrication to show voters he had “the courage” to admit to his “mistakes,” but insisted he had “worked damn hard” to become a Congressman and that he was not “a fake.”
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