National Roundup

Washington
Santos in plea negotiations with prosecutors
Former U.S. Rep. George Santos is in negotiations to resolve his federal criminal fraud case, prosecutors said in a court filing Monday.

“The parties are presently engaged in plea negotiations with the goal of resolving this matter without the need for a trial,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace’s office wrote in the filing.

Santos is scheduled to appear in court on Long Island for a hearing in the case Tuesday. He acknowledged in an interview that aired Sunday that he hadn’t ruled out pleading guilty.

“The trial is not until September and a plea is not off the table. So there’s obviously conversations taking place, especially after what happened in Congress, and we’ll see,” he said in the interview with CBS 2, referring to his expulsion from Congress earlier this month.

Asked if he is afraid of going to jail, Santos responded: “I think everybody should be afraid of going to jail, it’s not a pretty place and uh, I definitely want to work very hard to avoid that as best as possible.”

Prosecutors said in Monday’s filing they are also seeking an earlier trial date in case the negotiations fail to produce a deal. The request is opposed by Santos’ lawyer, who didn’t respond to an email seeking comment Monday.

Santos faces a host of charges that he defrauded donors to his campaign, lied to Congress about his wealth, received unemployment benefits while employed and used campaign contributions to pay for personal expenses like designer clothing. He pleaded not guilty in October to additional charges that he made tens of thousands of dollars in unauthorized charges on credit cards belonging to some of his campaign donors.

Santos hasn’t wasted any time looking to cash in on his infamy since becoming just the sixth lawmaker in history to be cast out by colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives, a move that left Republicans with a razor-thin majority in the chamber.

The 35-year-old Queens native launched an account on the website Cameo, where the public can pay him for a personalized video message. In the televised interview, Santos said he made more money in a week on the platform than his annual salary as a congressman.

Santos was touted as a rising star after he flipped the suburban district that covers the affluent North Shore of Long Island and a slice of the New York City borough of Queens last year.

But his life story unraveled before he was even sworn into office: Reports revealed he had lied about having Jewish ancestry, a career at top Wall Street firms and a college degree, among other things.

A special election will be held Feb. 13 to elect his House successor. That race will likely pit former U.S. Rep. Thomas Suozzi, a Democrat who previously held the seat before running unsuccessfully for governor, against one of a number of Republicans.

Washington
Judge scolds Giuliani for false claims about election workers
WASHINGTON (AP) — The judge overseeing a Georgia election workers’ defamation case scolded Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday for comments made outside the courthouse in which he insisted his false claims about the women were true.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell warned Giuliani’s lawyer that the remarks his client made to reporters about Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss when leaving the courthouse a day earlier amounted to “defamatory statements about them yet again.”

The judge appeared incredulous, asking Giuliani’s lawyer about the contradiction of his opening statements calling Freeman and Moss “good people” but then the former mayor repeating unfounded allegations of voter fraud.

“How are we supposed to reconcile that?” she asked the lawyer.

Giuliani’s lawyer, Joseph Sibley, conceded her point and told the judge he discussed the comments with his client, but added: “I can’t control everything he does.” He also argued that the mayor’s age and health concerns make long days in court challenging.

Giuliani has already been found liable in the case and previously acknowledged in court that he made public comments falsely claiming Freeman and Moss committed fraud while counting ballots.

The only issue remaining in the trial, which began on Monday, is the amount of damages, if any, Giuliani will have to pay the women.

Outside the courthouse on Monday, however, Giuliani told reporters: “When I testify, the whole story will be definitively clear that what I said was true, and that, whatever happened to them—which is unfortunate about other people overreacting—everything I said about them is true.”

Giuliani added that Moss and Freeman were “engaged in changing votes.” When a reporter pushed back, saying there was no proof of that, Giuliani replied: “”You’re damn right there is. ... Stay tuned.”

The judge’s comments came after lawyers for the women filed court papers late Monday raising concerns that Giuliani and his lawyer were violating court orders with their comments.

Giuliani’s attorney also suggested during his opening statement that the defamation case could financially ruin his client, saying the amount of money the mother and daughter want in damages is the “civil equivalent of the death penalty.”

A prior court order prevents them from arguing that Giuliani is “insolvent, bankrupt, judgment proof, or otherwise unable to defend himself, comply with this Court’s orders, or satisfy an eventual judgment,” Freeman and Moss’ lawyers wrote.

Indiana
Suspect in fatal grocery store shooting leaves behind debit card, leading to his arrest
GARY, Ind. (AP) — A debit card left behind at the scene of a fatal shooting helped police in Gary track down and arrest a man suspected of killing a fellow customer at a grocery store.

The violence Monday evening was caught on the store’s surveillance camera, in which the two men in their 40s get into a fight near the check-out counter.

One man is seen pulling out a gun and shooting the other, a 48-year-old Gary resident. The shooter then picks up his items, walks around the victim’s body and exits the store.

Witnesses told police the suspect forgot his debit card at the cash register. Officers were able to identify him as a 44-year-old from Gary, and he was arrested while walking not far from the grocery store, police said.

Gary, a rust-belt city on the shore of Lake Michigan southeast of Chicago, has struggled with crime in unemployment as its fortunes fell with the declining steel industry.