U.S. Rep. George Santos (R-NY) sits within the House Chamber prior to U.S. President Joe Biden delivering his State of the Union address on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., February 7, 2023.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
Embattled Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., was charged with theft in a 2017 case in Pennsylvania that was later dropped and expunged from his record, in keeping with a lawyer who aided Santos’ response to the charge and now regrets helping him.
“I must have let him go to hell,” that attorney, Tiffany Bogosian, told CNBC in a phone interview Thursday.
Bogosian affirmed the accuracy of Politico’s latest reporting that Santos was charged with theft by deception after multiple bounced checks were written in his name to dog breeders in Pennsylvania.
Santos had claimed that somebody had stolen his checkbook and written checks totaling hundreds of dollars — including multiple that were made out for “puppies,” in keeping with Bogosian, who provided screenshots of the checks and corresponding bank statements.
Days after those checks were cut, Santos held a pet-adoption event at a Staten Island pet store along with his purported pet charity, Friends of Pets United, Politico reported, citing the shop’s Instagram account and a one who attended the event.
A spokeswoman for Santos’ congressional office referred CNBC to the congressman’s attorney, who didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
Bogosian said Politico’s report was “1,000%” correct. The outlet identified her as a middle school classmate of Santos’ who bumped into him in late 2019 in Queens, Latest York, and was contacted by him weeks later when he claimed to have been served an extradition warrant related to the Pennsylvania theft charge.
Santos told her considered one of his checkbooks had gone missing in 2017, and that he had canceled it as soon as he noticed it was gone. Bogosian reached out to a Pennsylvania state police trooper to elucidate Santos’ situation as he had described it, arguing that Santos was clearly a victim of fraud but hadn’t realized it until he was served the warrant.
Bogosian recalled Santos telling her that, every week after their February 2020 meeting, he had gone to Pennsylvania and told prosecutors he worked for the Securities and Exchange Commission and had successfully persuaded them to drop the costs.
A spokeswoman for the York County District Court in Pennsylvania told CNBC that the Santos case in query “doesn’t exist inside the system,” and that she “cannot confirm” if the reportedly expunged case ever did or didn’t exist.
But Bogosian provided CNBC with a screenshot showing a November 2017 charge in Santos’ name of “THEFT BY DECEP-FALSE IMPRESSION.”
She told CNBC that she not believes Santos’ story, in light of the mountain of scandals, lies and investigations which have dogged him since shortly after he won his race for Latest York’s third Congressional District. He has vowed to serve out his full two-year term within the House.
“IÂ feel terrible, I must have just let him return to the warrant,” the lawyer said. She vowed to “do every part I can to get him into jail, and if not into jail than out of office.”
