George Santos is now under criminal investigation – and it changes the game entirely
When the national political media belatedly did its job and finally exposed last week that most of House Republican candidate George Santos’ life was a lie, it raised a number of questions. One of the big questions for us was whether this would turn out to be a criminal matter. Now we may be about to get that answer.
Lying is only a crime in specific situations, such as lying under oath or lying to obtain a financial gain. But what about lying in order to win an election? The Nassau County District Attorney, a Republican, has announced that she’s investigating to determine whether there was a criminal element to Santos’ lies. It’s also being reported that the EDNY, a division of the DOJ, has launched a federal investigation into Santos.
This means the DA and the DOJ will each be looking under every rock in Santos’ life story, including potentially interviewing everyone in his life. In other words, if Santos has more ugly secrets up his sleeve that the media couldn’t find, they’re about to get dug up by prosecutors and grand juries.
At this point it would be wise for George Santos to resign, beg for mercy, and disappear from public view. But thus far nothing about Santos’ handling of this scandal suggests that he’s wise on any level. For now at least, he seems intent upon taking office and trying to weather the storm, no matter how ugly it might get for him or his Republican Party. And because the current House Republican leadership is nonexistent, there’s no one to shove him out the back door.
This will place enormous pressure on the House Ethics Committee, which will be in Republican hands as of next month, to carry out an investigation into George Santos’ house of cards. Of course the Republicans won’t want to investigate one of their own. But if the media keeps up the pressure on them, they’ll have to. That’s part of why Democratic House leaders are making such a priority of pushing Santos to the front and making sure the media sticks with the story going forward.
