Pushkin. New legal developments involving ousted Republican congressman George Santos. Sources say there's a possible plea deal in the corruption case that drove him from office. His trial was said to begin September ninth. Why Plead Guilty Now? So the rumors are true. On Monday, August 19th, George Santos pled guilty in federal court. When I heard the news, I made my way to New York, and I was there in the courtroom, just a few rows behind George Santos for all of it. I called Jake right after the hearing as I was driving away from the courthouse. Amy? Hello? Hey. Hey, can you hear me?

I can hear you. I'm walking the dog in the park, but I have so many questions for you, and so does my dog, Milo. Are you home now?

No, I'm dropping him back.

Oh, my gosh. Wow. Okay. What a day. Yeah. Talk me through.

As expected, Santos fled guilty, specifically to two counts, Count Two and Count Six. I think one of those is wire fraud and one of those is aggravated identity theft. But if I understood correctly, he basically admitted that he did everything in the indictment. So he pledged to these two charges, but he did own up to all of the allegations against him by the federal government as part of this plea agreement.

How many counts were there, total?

Twenty-three.

Wow. Does that mean that he Did he fared well on this? I mean, or no?

Well, what didn't happen today was sentencing. So that was tentatively scheduled for February. So we won't know. But the range that he's looking at is minimum of two years in prison and a maximum of 22 years.

Talk me through showing up at the courthouse and what the scene was like.

Yeah. I got to the courthouse in Central Islep on the lawn, and it was a zoo. Tent after tent after tent of media set up. People had been camped out there probably all day just trying to get shots of Santos walking in and out of the cour. It was pretty crazy.

But there's an image that I'm looking at now on my computer screen of George Santos. I was trying to see what you might have seen. He's dressed in this men in black, black suit with these gold frame, sign glasses. But He's got a Star of David on his lapel. It's a little hard to see, but it's clearly a Star of David. I'm like, This is unbelievable. Dude is walking into the courthouse at his moment of reckoning, and he's still rocking the Star of David like he is holding on to that claim of Jewish heritage.

Yeah, wow. I couldn't see that from where I was. I was sitting in the courthouse three rows behind him. It's a huge building. It's a massive federal facility, but the courtroom itself was actually quite small. It was just four rows of pews on each side. Two of those rows were basically filled up by lawyers for the prosecution. Of course, there's no jury, right? Because this ultimately means this isn't going to go to trial.

Okay. When you're in the courtroom, are you there before he shows up, or was he already there when you walked in?

Yeah. When I'm in the courtroom, he is not there yet. Then you're just sitting there, and it's very much like a library church atmosphere. Everyone's whispering and looking around. Then the prosecutors entered, and actually, some family members of the lead prosecutor were seated behind me, so I talked to them a little bit. I mean, just like, no one has cell phones, no one has computers. I don't think that even let you bring an Apple Watch in. And so everybody is forced to talk to each other. So for a while, people just sat there milling about.

I want you to tell me about the moment that he walks into the courtroom.

Yeah. So everyone is, like I said, so everyone is heated, quietly, anxiously, wondering what's going to happen, when things are going to actually get going, if this is actually going to happen today as we were expecting. And then I heard from one of the reporters sitting next to me. He had actually gone out to try and go to the bathroom before things would start. And he came back and told me, he's here. He came face to face with Santos on his way to the bathroom. I was just like, whoa, okay, this is really happening. Half of the morning, I thought maybe he wouldn't show up, but then it was real. He was there. And so, unceremoniously, the doors open and Santos comes through with his legal team in his Black and gray suit. He didn't look overly distressed or anything, but there was a tenseness to his body. The moment he walked in, I was just, He was breachless because there's so much anticipation and so much build up to this moment. And then there he was.

When he walked down the aisle, could you get a glimpse of his face? Did he look like Solom or did he look like It was super easy.

You could feel, at least what I sensed, was you could feel all the anxiety and feeling and anticipation that was locked into his body as he waited for this to start.

Is it one of these things where the judge was reading out the charges and asking him, How do you plea?

It started very matter of factly with the judge saying, You understand that you are going to be waiving your right to a trial if you do enter into this guilty plea today. Then she started recapping what that guilty plea would be for. But then it was astounding just to hear the judge. She gave this long list of like, Okay, you can't have a trial. You're giving up that right. You're giving up the right to subpoena witnesses. You're giving up your right to testify in your own defense. She was like, Do you understand that? And Santos said, Yes. There was a somber quality to his voice in those interactions back and forth with the judge, but he was keeping it together in the courtroom.

Yeah.

There was a moment in the beginning of the proceedings where the judge swore him in and asked him to raise his right-hand and to her to tell the truth. And that just felt like a moment to have George Santos sworn to tell the truth.

Yeah, that's crazy. It's almost like, can the judge keep a straight face? I mean, Did he make a statement?

He did make a statement. He made a statement in court, and then he made a statement outside the courthouse. I just was writing so ferociously, but basically, he started off by saying, I participated in this scheme with Nancy Mark. Everything that we talked about, everything that we talked through with Sourav is basically what he talked to. And then he said, I deeply regret this. I accept your full responsibility. I'm committed to making amends. And then he pleaded guilty on both counts.

When he says that, is he saying that just very wooden and composed, or is there a motion there when he's making this apology?

It's interesting. When he started to make his statement, he asked the judge if he should stand up. I I just think in that moment, he was expecting more dramatic, more ceder out of it, and the judge told him he could stay seated. You're not getting some big swan song moment out of it.

No, I totally buy that. That's such an astute It was a good observation.

It did feel real, as real as anyone can be reading a prepared statement in a federal courtroom.

Yeah, I'd love to know, we talked to a prosecutor on the line, what it means that he only played guilty to two of the counts. Yeah.

I get the sense that that was the proper that the government offered to avoid what I have to assume would have been a lengthy and expensive trial. If you're thinking about the dozens of lawyers that filled the courtroom today. An assistant US attorney, Ryan Harris, who was the main spokesperson for the prosecution today, he listed out, We were prepared to bring 40 witnesses, which included includes victims, so donors, campaign staffers, family, co-conspirators, I'm imagining that would have been Nancy Mark, and 500 exhibits, including text, photos, emails, audio, video, financial records. This would have been an exhaustive and thorough trial. This is something I've been thinking about a lot, because as the prosecution, how do you tell the story of all of these different schemes? Because they're each their own story. It was going to be a real challenge for them, and I think also a challenge for a jury to keep track of all of these things. I think people were projecting it was going to take probably over a month to get through all of that, and we're leaving that detail. I think that the case that the prosecution has built, we will never hear.

There's something really satisfying about that if you've been following it. There is something- I have. There is something- I had been gearing up for this trial, and the reporter in me wanted to see this through, wanted this to go to trial, wanted every one of my questions about what happened with this $1,000, $2,000 loan. I had those questions, and I wanted to see that aired out in court. I really did. Yeah. But then hearing today, the mountain of evidence that the prosecution had and the lack of defense that Santos seemed to have, it just made this feel like a foregone conclusion that whether we sat through a lengthy trial or not, the result was basically going to still be the same is that Santos was going to be found guilty on at least some of this always. But I would say the most dramatic part of the entire thing was around the issue of restitution. Basically, everything was coming to an end. It had run about an hour. It was very calm. In fact, the judge was thanking everyone for being so calm. Then there was this back and forth between Santos' lawyers and the judge and the prosecutors over this issue of restitution and forfeiture, I guess.

Like, is that just going to be able to pay this money? Joe Murray, who's the attorney that we've been reaching out to, at one point, stood up, even as the proceedings were ending, and was just saying, Santos is going to make best efforts. He kept saying, best efforts. He's going to do his best to try and pay this. He He has to pay it 30 days before sentencing. So if sentencing is actually going to be in February, that means he has to come up with hundreds of thousands of dollars between now and February. Joseph Murray, his attorney, was making this point of like, Well, we don't know how these proceedings will impact his employability, which I thought was so interesting and comical. During his most previous job that I'm aware of was elected official, and I don't think he has great credibility on that front. I mean, he did earlier this year mount a campaign to run for a different Congressional district in New York, also on Long Island, but further east. And then he suspended that in light of this criminal trial, I assume. So, yeah, it is a question of, A, where he's going to get the money to pay back the government and the victims, and B, what his next job is going to be.

My friend is a reality TV producer who got But he got Michael Cohen on his show. I could see Santa's doing something like that.

Yeah, or a lot of cameos.

A lot of cameos.

A lot of cameos. Like $200,000 worth of cameos. Yeah. After the hearings included, Santos gave a very tearful statement outside with his gold frame sunglasses, just choking back tears and admitting that he'd lied There was a huge media Scrum around him.

Beating guilty is a step I never imagined.

I take. But It is a necessary one because it is the right thing to do. It's not only a recognition of my misrepresentation to others, but more profoundly, it is my own recognition of the lies I told myself over these past years. And then the Breanne piece, who's the United States attorney for the Eastern district, spoke. They had someone from the Justice Department's Criminal Division. They get all the suits, all the big wigs up to give their statement about how this can't happen here, and we proved that today. It's all political speak, and it's all about rooting out corruption and accountability. And I guess that's what happened today because Santos seemingly was afraid of the prosecution and decided to take this plea. But it does feel a little hollow that we won't see all the bits and pieces airing out at a trial. That maybe would have felt more honest accountability for this.

There's something about seeing that image of him walking in the men in black suit, the gold from glasses, and again, the star on his lapel, just the whole bit. We're just like, we are not seeing the last of this guy. He is someone who knows how to command the spotlight, and he will be back. It seems clear to me in some capacity.

In light of this plea deal, there's so much that we'll never know. We won't hear from the witnesses, people who saw Santos operate and were drawn into his web. But here's the thing, you actually can hear from one of them, someone who George Santos befriended and then betrayed. She was a gatekeeper to Gatsby country, an ambassador of the very rich, someone who believed in Santos and empowered him. She has a lot to say. Next time. On DeepCover.

So I expended a lot of my own personal political capital, meaning my friends and connections who participate in conservative politics, and they supported George for the same reason that I did.

This episode was reported and produced by Amy Gaines McQuade. It was edited by Karen Chakergy. It was mastered by Sara Bruguer. Our executive producer is Jacob Smith. Additional audio in this episode is from CBS, ABC, and Newsday. Special thanks to Jake Flanigan, Sarah Nix, and Greta Cohn. I'm Jake Halpern.