Speaker 1: Pushkin.
Speaker 2: New legal developments involving austed Republican Congressman George Santos.
Speaker 3: Sources say there's a possible plea deal in the corruption
Speaker 3: case that drove him from office.
Speaker 4: His trial was said to begin September ninth. Why plead
Speaker 4: guilty now?
Speaker 2: So the rumors are true. On Monday, August nineteenth, George
Speaker 2: Santos pled guilty in federal court. When I heard the news,
Speaker 2: I made my way to New York and I was
Speaker 2: there in the courtroom just a few rows behind George
Speaker 2: Santos for all of it. I called Jake right after
Speaker 2: the hearing as I was driving away from the courthouse.
Speaker 4: Amy, Hello, heyne I can hear you.
Speaker 5: I'm walking the dog in the park, but I have
Speaker 5: so many questions for you as soon as my dog Milo.
Speaker 5: Are you home now?
Speaker 4: No, I'm dropping that.
Speaker 5: Oh my gosh. Wow. Okay, what a day. Yeah, So
Speaker 5: walk me through.
Speaker 4: So as expected, Santa Flood guilty specifically to two counts,
Speaker 4: Count two and count six. I think one of those
Speaker 4: is wirefraud and one of those is aggravated identity theft.
Speaker 4: But if I'm just said correctly, he basically admitted that
Speaker 4: he did everything in the indictment, So like he pled
Speaker 4: to these two charges, but he did own up to
Speaker 4: all of the allegations against him by the federal government
Speaker 4: as part of this plea agreement.
Speaker 5: Huh. How many counts were their total?
Speaker 4: Twenty three?
Speaker 5: Wow? Does that mean that he and he like fared
Speaker 5: well on this?
Speaker 6: I mean, well, no, what didn't happen today was sentencings,
Speaker 6: so that was tentatively scheduled for February, so we won't know,
Speaker 6: but the range that he's looking at is minimum of two.
Speaker 4: Years in prison and a maximum of twenty two years.
Speaker 5: Talk me through like showing up at the courthouse and
Speaker 5: what the scene was like.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I got to the courthouse in Central icelip
Speaker 4: on the lawn and it was a zoo tent after
Speaker 4: tent after tent of media set up. People had been
Speaker 4: camped out there probably all day, just trying to get
Speaker 4: shots to stand just walking in and out of the court.
Speaker 4: It's pretty crazy.
Speaker 5: But there's an image that I'm looking at now. I'm like,
Speaker 5: if you just scream of George Santas, I was trying
Speaker 5: to like see what you might have seen. He's dressed
Speaker 5: in this like men in black black suit with these
Speaker 5: like gold frame sunglasses. But he's got like a Star
Speaker 5: of David on his lapel. It's a little hard to see,
Speaker 5: but it's clearly a Star David. And I'm like, this
Speaker 5: is unbelievable. Like, dude is walking into the courthouse in
Speaker 5: his moment of reckoning and he's still got he's still
Speaker 5: rocking the Star of David, like he is holding on
Speaker 5: to that claim of Jewish heritage. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Wow, I couldn't see that from where I was. So
Speaker 4: I was sitting in the courthouse three rows behind him.
Speaker 4: It's a huge building, like it's a it's a massive
Speaker 4: federal facility, but the courtroom itself was actually quite small.
Speaker 4: It was just four rows of pews on each side,
Speaker 4: and two of those roads were basically filled up by
Speaker 4: lawyers for the prosecution. Of course, there's no jury, right
Speaker 4: because this is you know, and now this ultimately needs
Speaker 4: is this isn't going to go to trial.
Speaker 5: Okay, But so when you're so when you're in the courtroom,
Speaker 5: are you there before he shows up or was he
Speaker 5: already there when you walked in?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so when I'm in the courtroom, he is not
Speaker 4: there yet, and then he's just kind of sitting there
Speaker 4: and it's very much like a library church, kind of
Speaker 4: like atmosphere, Like everyone's like whispering and looking around. And
Speaker 4: then the prosecutors entered, and actually there's some family members
Speaker 4: of the lead prosecutor were seated behind me, so I
Speaker 4: talk to them a little bit. I mean, just like
Speaker 4: you don't no one has cell phones, no one has computers.
Speaker 4: I don't think that you would even even let you
Speaker 4: bring an Apple Watch in, And so everybody is kind
Speaker 4: of forced to talk to each other. And so for
Speaker 4: a while, people just kind of sat there milling about.
Speaker 5: I want you to tell them at the moment that
Speaker 5: he walks into the courtroom, Yeah.
Speaker 4: So everyone is, like I said, kind of so everyone
Speaker 4: is kind of feeded quietly, anxiously wondering what's gonna happen,
Speaker 4: when things are going to actually get going, if this
Speaker 4: is actually going to happen today, we're expected thing. And
Speaker 4: then I heard from one of the reporters sitting next
Speaker 4: to me. He had actually gone out to try and
Speaker 4: go to the bathroom before things would start, and he
Speaker 4: came back and told me he's here, Like he came
Speaker 4: face to face with Santos on his way to the bathroom.
Speaker 4: And I was just like, WHOA, Okay, this is really happening.
Speaker 4: You know, half of the morning I thought maybe he
Speaker 4: wouldn't show up, but then it was, it was real.
Speaker 4: He was there, and so, you know, unceremoniously the doors
Speaker 4: open and Santos comes through with his legal teams in
Speaker 4: his black and gray suit. He didn't looked like overly
Speaker 4: distressed or anything, but there was like a tenseness to
Speaker 4: his body. But the moment that he walked in, I
Speaker 4: was sort of just reachless because there's so much anticipation,
Speaker 4: in so much build up to this moment, and then
Speaker 4: there he was.
Speaker 5: When he and when he walked down the aisle, did
Speaker 5: you get a glimpse of his face? Did he look
Speaker 5: like solemn or did he look like.
Speaker 7: Easy?
Speaker 4: You could feel, at least what I've said, so you
Speaker 4: could feel kind of all the anxiety and feeling and
Speaker 4: anticipation that was like locked into his body as he
Speaker 4: waited for this to start.
Speaker 5: Is it one of these things where the judge was
Speaker 5: reading out the charges and asking him how do you plead?
Speaker 4: It started very matter of factly with the judge saying,
Speaker 4: you understand that you are going to be waiving your
Speaker 4: right to a trial. If you do enter into this
Speaker 4: guilty police today and then she started kind of recapping
Speaker 4: what that guilty pleae would before. But then it was
Speaker 4: kind of astounding just to hear the judge. He kind
Speaker 4: of gave like this long list of like, Okay, you
Speaker 4: can't have a trial. You're giving up that right, you're
Speaker 4: giving up the rightticipenated witnesses, you're giving up your right
Speaker 4: to testify in your own defense. That he had to
Speaker 4: you know, she was like, do you understand that, and
Speaker 4: Santas said yes. There was a somber of quality to
Speaker 4: his voice in those interactions back and forth with the judge,
Speaker 4: but he was keeping it together in the courtroom. Yeah,
Speaker 4: there was a moment where in the beginning of the
Speaker 4: proceedings where the judge swore him in and asked him
Speaker 4: to raise his right hand and you know, trow to
Speaker 4: tell the truth. And that just felt like a moment
Speaker 4: to have toward Stantos worn to tell the truth.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that is that's crazy. Yeah, I mean it's almost
Speaker 5: like can the judge keep a straight face? I mean,
Speaker 5: did he make a statement?
Speaker 4: He did make a statement. He made a statement in court,
Speaker 4: and then he made a statement outside the courthouse. I mean,
Speaker 4: I just was writing so ferociously. But basically he says
Speaker 4: he started off by saying, I participated in the scheme
Speaker 4: with Nancy Mark. Everything that we talked about, everything that
Speaker 4: you know we talked through with Sturrob is basically what
Speaker 4: he talked to And then he said, you know, I
Speaker 4: deeply regret this. I accept full responsibility. I'm committed to
Speaker 4: making amends. And then he pleaded guilty on both counts.
Speaker 5: When he says that, like, is he's saying that just
Speaker 5: very kind of like wooden and composed, or is there
Speaker 5: emotion there when he's kind of making this apology.
Speaker 4: It's interesting. So when he started to make a statement,
Speaker 4: he asked the judge if he should stand up, and
Speaker 4: I had to think in that moment he was extending
Speaker 4: more dramatics, like more theater out of it as the
Speaker 4: judge told him he could stay seated, like you're not
Speaker 4: getting some big you know swans.
Speaker 5: No, I totally buy that. And that's like, as such
Speaker 5: an astute observation.
Speaker 4: You know, it did feel real, as real as anyone
Speaker 4: can be reading a prepared statement in the sudden courtroom.
Speaker 5: You know, yeah, I'd love to know, you know, we
Speaker 5: talked to a prosecutor on the line. What it means
Speaker 5: that he only pled guilty to two.
Speaker 4: Of them account Yeah, I get the sense that that
Speaker 4: was the proper that the government offered to avoid what
Speaker 4: I have to assume would have been a lengthy and
Speaker 4: expensive trial. If you're thinking about the dozens of layers
Speaker 4: that filled the courtroom today. An assistant US Attorney Ryan Harris,
Speaker 4: who was the main spokesperson for the prosecution today, he
Speaker 4: listed out we were prepared to bring forty witnesses, which
Speaker 4: includes victims, folks, owners, campaign staffers, family co conspirators. I'm
Speaker 4: imagining that would have been Nancy Mark and five hundred
Speaker 4: exhibits including text, photos, emails, audio, video, financial records. You know,
Speaker 4: this would have been an exhaustive and thorough trial. This
Speaker 4: is something I'd been thinking about a lot because as
Speaker 4: the prosecution, how do you tell the story of all
Speaker 4: of these different schemes, Because they're there, each their own story, right,
Speaker 4: It was going to be a real challenge for them,
Speaker 4: and I think also a challenge for a jury to
Speaker 4: keep track of all of these things, and so I
Speaker 4: think people were subjecting it was going to take probably
Speaker 4: over a month to get through all of that, and
Speaker 4: we're losing that detail. So I think that the case
Speaker 4: that the prosecution has built we will never hear. And
Speaker 4: there's something really satisfying about that.
Speaker 5: If you've been following something I have.
Speaker 4: You know, I had been gearing up for this trial,
Speaker 4: and the reporter in me wanted to see this through,
Speaker 4: wanted this through at a trial, wanted every one of
Speaker 4: my questions about what happened with this thou hundred thousand
Speaker 4: dollars loan, right like I had those questions that I
Speaker 4: wanted to see that aired out in court.
Speaker 5: It really did.
Speaker 4: But then hearing today the amount of evidence that the
Speaker 4: prosecution had and the lack of defense that Santa seemed
Speaker 4: to have, you know, it just kind of made this
Speaker 4: feel like the foregone conclusion that whether we sat through
Speaker 4: a lengthy trial or not, the result was basically going
Speaker 4: to still be the same, is that Santras is going
Speaker 4: to be found guilty on at least some of this always.
Speaker 4: But I would say the most dramatic part of the
Speaker 4: entire thing was around the issue of restitutions. Basically, everything
Speaker 4: was coming to an end. It had run about an hour.
Speaker 4: It was very calm. In fact, the judge was thanking
Speaker 4: everyone for being so calm, and then there was this
Speaker 4: back and forth between Santas's lawyers and the judge and
Speaker 4: the prosecutors over this issue of restitution and forfeiture. I
Speaker 4: guess like if Santas going to be able to pay
Speaker 4: this money, And so Joe Murray, who's the attorney that
Speaker 4: we've been reaching out to, at one point like stood
Speaker 4: up even as the proceedings were ending and was just saying,
Speaker 4: you know, Santis is going to make best efforts. He
Speaker 4: kept saying, guest efforts. He's going to do his best
Speaker 4: to try and pay this to pay thirty days before sentencing,
Speaker 4: so what sentencing is actually going to be in February.
Speaker 4: That means he has to come up with hundreds of
Speaker 4: thousands of dollars between now and February. And Joseph Murray,
Speaker 4: his attorney, was taking this point of like, well, we
Speaker 4: don't know how these proceedings will impact his employabilities.
Speaker 8: Which I thought was so interesting and comical. Most previous
Speaker 8: job that I'm aware of was elected official, and I
Speaker 8: don't think he has great credibility on that front.
Speaker 4: I mean, he did earlier this year amount a campaign
Speaker 4: to run for a different Congressional district in New York,
Speaker 4: also on Long Island, but further east, and then he
Speaker 4: suspended that in light of this criminal trial. I assume, so, yeah,
Speaker 4: it is a question of a where he's going to
Speaker 4: get the money to pay back the government and the
Speaker 4: victims and be what his next job is going to be.
Speaker 5: My friend is like a reality TV producer who got
Speaker 5: He got Michael Cohane on his show. I could see
Speaker 5: Santa's doing something like that, or a lot.
Speaker 4: Of cameos, a lot of cameos, like like two hundred
Speaker 4: thousand dollars worth of cameos. Yes, After the hearings included
Speaker 4: Santos gave a very tearful statement outside with his gold
Speaker 4: framed sunglasses, just kind of like choking back tears and
Speaker 4: admitting that he's lied, and there was a huge media
Speaker 4: scrum around him.
Speaker 3: Leading guilty as a step I never imagine I take,
Speaker 3: but it is a necessary one because it is the
Speaker 3: right thing to do. It's not only a recognition of
Speaker 3: my mister red person has to other uys, but more profoundly,
Speaker 3: it is my own recognition of the lies I told
Speaker 3: myself over these past years.
Speaker 4: And then the Brieance piece who's the United States Attorney
Speaker 4: for the Eastern District spoke. You know, they had someone
Speaker 4: from the Justice Department's Criminal Division right to get like
Speaker 4: all the suits, all the big wigs up to give
Speaker 4: their statement about how this can't happen here, and we
Speaker 4: proved that today. You know, it's all political speak and
Speaker 4: it's all about rooting out corruption and accountability. And I
Speaker 4: guess that's what happened today because you know, Santo seemingly
Speaker 4: was afraid of the prosecution and decided to take this plea.
Speaker 4: But it does see a little hollow that we won't
Speaker 4: see all the fiften pieces aired out at a trial
Speaker 4: that maybe would have felt like more honest accountability for this.
Speaker 5: There's something about seeing that image of him walking and
Speaker 5: like the men in black soup that go from glasses
Speaker 5: and again like the star of data on his lapel,
Speaker 5: just like the whole bit. We're just like, we are.
Speaker 9: Not seen the last of this guy.
Speaker 5: He is someone who knows how to command the spotlight
Speaker 5: and he will be back.
Speaker 9: It seems clear to me in some capacity.
Speaker 1: In light of this plea deal, there's so much that
Speaker 1: will never know. We won't hear from the witnesses. People
Speaker 1: who saw Santos operate and were drawn into his web.
Speaker 1: But here's a thing you actually can hear from one
Speaker 1: of them, someone who George Santos befriended and then betrayed.
Speaker 1: She was a gatekeeper to Gatsby Country, an ambassador of
Speaker 1: the very rich, someone who believed in Santos and empowered him,
Speaker 1: and she has a lot to say next time on
Speaker 1: Deep Cover.
Speaker 7: So I expended a lot of my own personal political capital,
Speaker 7: meaning my friends and connections who participate in conservative politics,
Speaker 7: and they supported George for the same reason that I did.
Speaker 1: This episode was reported and produced by Amy Gains McQuaid.
Speaker 1: It was edited by Karen Chakerjee. It was mastered by
Speaker 1: Sarah Bruguerer. Our executive producer is Jacob Smith. Additional audio
Speaker 1: in this episode is from CBS ABC and Newsday Special
Speaker 1: Thanks to Jake Flanagan, Sarah Nix, and Greta Cone. I'm
Speaker 1: Jake Calburn.