May 10, 2023 09:52 AM UTC

Boebert Silent While AR-15 Ally Santos Turns Himself In

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• by: Colorado Pols

Politico reports that serial fabulist and alleged financial fraudster GOP Rep. George Santos of New York has turned himself in after being indicted yesterday on a range of charges related to campaign finance violations and defrauding would-be donors to his congressional campaign:

Rep. George Santos surrendered to federal authorities Wednesday morning after being charged with wire fraud, money laundering and theft of public funds.

In a 13-count indictment, federal prosecutors accused Santos, a first-term Republican congressman from New York, of fraudulently obtaining unemployment benefits, using campaign contributions to pay down personal debts and purchase designer clothing and lying to the House of Representatives about his financial condition.

“This indictment seeks to hold Santos accountable for various alleged fraudulent schemes and brazen misrepresentations,” Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement. “Taken together, the allegations in the indictment charge Santos with relying on repeated dishonesty and deception to ascend to the halls of Congress and enrich himself.

After learning over the months since Rep. Santos’ election that the man’s entire life story is just the latest iteration of a long-running con job, the revelation that Santos’ congressional campaign was more about personally enriching Santos than actually being elected to Congress isn’t that much of a surprise. The one thing that Santos has in his corner at this obviously bleak moment in his short political career is the narrow Republican House majority, where Santos has been smart enough to suck up to Speaker Kevin McCarthy and reliably vote leadership’s way. As a result, McCarthy still refuses to call for Santos to resign despite the growing number of New York Republicans demanding it.

One notable exception to Santos’ general rule of keeping his head down in Congress was his co-sponsorship with Colorado’s own bad bookkeeper of record Rep. Lauren Boebert of legislation that would designate the AR-15 assault rifle “America’s National Gun.” It’s a bill that frankly made more sense for Boebert to support than Santos, whose Long Island constituents were unimpressed. In his short time in the House, Santos has generally hung out with Boebert’s back-bencher crowd along with Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

But they’re all silent today. Boebert still hasn’t responded to Donald Trump’s sexual battery verdict yesterday.

The more scandals pile up, the more the silence roars.