Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
Embattled Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., was charged with theft in a 2017 case in Pennsylvania that was later on dropped and expunged from his record, according to a legal representative who assisted Santos’ reaction to the charge and now is sorry for assisting him.
“I must have let him go to hell,” that lawyer, Tiffany Bogosian, informed CNBC in a phone interview Thursday.
Bogosian verified the precision of Politico’s brand-new reporting that Santos was charged with theft by deceptiveness after numerous bounced checks were composed in his name to dog breeders in Pennsylvania.
Santos had actually declared that somebody had actually taken his checkbook and composed checks amounting to countless dollars — consisting of numerous that were constructed out for “puppies,” according to Bogosian, who supplied screenshots of the checks and matching bank declarations.
Days after those checks were cut, Santos held a pet-adoption occasion at a Staten Island pet store with his supposed family pet charity, Friends of Pets United, Politico reported, pointing out the store’s Instagram account and an individual who participated in the occasion.
A spokesperson for Santos’ congressional workplace referred CNBC to the congressman’s lawyer, who did not right away react to an ask for remark.
Bogosian said Politico’s report was “1,000%” proper. The outlet recognized her as an intermediate school schoolmate of Santos’ who encountered him in late 2019 in Queens, New York, and was called by him weeks later on when he declared to have actually been served an extradition warrant associated to the Pennsylvania theft charge.
Santos informed her among his checkbooks had actually gone missing out on in 2017, which he had actually canceled it as quickly as he discovered it was gone. Bogosian connected to a Pennsylvania state authorities cannon fodder to describe Santos’ scenario as he had actually explained it, arguing that Santos was plainly a victim of scams however had not recognized it till he was served the warrant.
Bogosian remembered Santos informing her that, a week after their February 2020 conference, he had actually gone to Pennsylvania and informed district attorneys he worked for the Securities and Exchange Commission and had actually effectively encouraged them to drop the charges.
A spokesperson for the York County District Court in Pennsylvania informed CNBC that the Santos case in concern “does not exist within the system,” which she “cannot verify” if the supposedly expunged case ever did or didn’t exist.
But Bogosian supplied CNBC with a screenshot revealing a November 2017 charge in Santos’ name of “THEFT BY DECEP-FALSE IMPRESSION.”
She informed CNBC that she no longer thinks Santos’ story, due to the mountain of scandals, lies and examinations that have actually dogged him because soon after he won his race for New York’s 3rd Congressional District. He has actually pledged to serve out his complete two-year term in the House.
“I feel dreadful, I must have simply let him go back to the warrant,” the legal representative said. She swore to “do whatever I can to get him into prison, and if not into prison than out of workplace.”
