GOP's George Santos hit with a 23-count superseding indictment

Rep. George Santos (R-NY) was charged by the Department of Justice on Tuesday in a sprawling 23-count superseding indictment.

According to the court filing, prosecutors say Santos led “a fraudulent scheme to steal the personal identity and financial information of contributors to his campaign."

U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said, "Santos is charged with stealing people’s identities and making charges on his own donors’ credit cards without their authorization."

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In one instance he allegedly charged $12,000 on a donor’s credit card and then moved the money directly into his own personal account.

“Santos allegedly led multiple additional fraudulent criminal schemes, lying to the American public in the process," the release said. "The FBI is committed to upholding the laws of our electoral process. Anyone who attempts to violate the law as part of a political campaign will face punishment in the criminal justice system,” stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Smith.

“The defendant - a Congressman - allegedly stole the identities of family members and used the credit card information of political contributors to fraudulently inflate his campaign coffers,” the District Attorney Donnelly said in the Justice Department release. “We thank our partners in the US Attorney’s Office and the FBI as we work together to root out public corruption on Long Island.”

In another case, Santos is accused of "submitting materially false reports to the FEC on behalf of the campaign." The release also links Santos' treasurer Nancy Marks to this act. She recently made a plea deal with the DOJ. The scheme was to artificially inflate the campaign’s fundraising numbers and mislead the FEC, a national Republican Party committee, and the public, the allegations continue.

Specifically, the filing says that Santos and his campaign were trying to qualify for a program the national GOP had where they'd give "financial and logistical support to Santos' campaign" if he met the terms.

"Santos had to demonstrate, among other things, that his congressional campaign had raised at least $250,000 from third-party contributors in a single quarter," said the court documents. So, it created the appearance he was meeting the benchmark, but he wasn't, DOJ alleges. At least 10 family members of Santos and Marks made contributions to the campaign, but those family members never actually made the donations, the allegations suggest.

"Santos and Marks agreed to falsely report to the FEC that Santos had loaned the campaign significant sums of money," said the documents. In fact, Santos never made the loan as he never had the money to do it, according to the authorities.

The loan has been part of the questions about Santos because the previous year he claimed that he was near bankruptcy and unable to pay his rent. The following year he was able to give a massive loan to the campaign. In fact, the loan was all a lie, the DOJ suggests.

"Through the execution of this scheme, Santos and Marks ensured that Santos met the necessary financial benchmarks to qualify for the program administered by the national party committee," said the release. "As a result of qualifying for the program, the congressional campaign received financial support."

Read the full details at the DOJ site here.