George Santos will formally admit guilt in a Brazilian court for a 2008 incident in which he defrauded a store clerk of $1,300 over clothes and shoes, according to a plea deal submitted by Santos’s lawyers and accepted by prosecutors, CNN reports. Submitted in January–days after Santos was sworn in to Congress–the plea deal from Santos’s attorney–stated that Santos was “re-socialized” and gainfully employed, apparently referring to his seat in Congress. Such agreements typically happen in Brazilian courts when a potential sentence is less than four years imprisonment.
The fact that this agreement was submitted to the Brazilian court after Santos’s election to Congress, and Speaker pro tem Kevin McCarthy took no action to sanction a convicted criminal for his actions, demonstrates a complete lack of ethics on behalf of House GOP leadership seeking to secure McCarthy’s time in the Speaker’s chair.