When you’ve got something like Hamas’ invasion of Israel gripping the eyes of the world, along with the various other crisis that are stacking up, it’s easy for some things to fall through the cracks. That may have been working to the benefit of embattled NY GOP Congressman George Santos on Tuesday. Not all that many people seemed to notice that Santos, who is already facing prosecution on multiple charges, had 23 new charges filed against him by federal prosecutors as they continue to go through all of his bank records and campaign finance reports. Most of the charges are still related to his dodgy financial dealings, but he’s expanding the scope of his alleged activity to include identity theft and out-and-out credit card theft. (NBC News)

Federal prosecutors hit Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., with 23 additional charges Tuesday, including allegations of identity theft and that he charged a supporter’s credit card in excess of their contribution and then transferred the money to his personal bank account.

Prosecutors said Santos faces “one count of conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, two counts of wire fraud, two counts of making materially false statements to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), two counts of falsifying records submitted to obstruct the FEC, two counts of aggravated identity theft, and one count of access device fraud” in a superseding indictment filed Tuesday.

Assuming all of the allegations are proven (and how many of you are really doubting it at this point?), this will be quite the rap sheet. Much like some of the train robbers of the old west, you almost have to admire the guy’s unmitigated gall and brazenness. According to the U.S. prosecutor in charge, Santos stands accused of stealing the identities of people on line, making fraudulent charges on his donors’ credit cards, and transferring money from their accounts directly into his personal account. In FEC filings, he claimed “non-existent loans and contributions that were either fabricated or stolen.”

Santos’ campaign treasurer Nancy Marks has already pleaded guilty to some lesser charges and it sounds like she has been providing evidence for the state. One donor who actually did make a contribution to Santos later learned that his card had been used to run up thousands of dollars in additional “campaign contributions,” potentially placing him at risk of FEC charges for excessive contributions, but Santos allegedly ran up all the charges himself. We also learned about that mysterious half million dollar loan that Santos claimed to have made to his campaign. Prosecutors say it was a complete fabrication and the money never existed.

So what happens next? Everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but some of Santos’ fellow New York Republicans have seen enough. They are introducing a resolution to expel him from Congress and put an end to all of the embarrassment.

“Today, I’ll be introducing an expulsion resolution to rid the People’s House of fraudster George Santos,” Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y., said in a post on the social media platform X.

He said the resolution will be co-sponsored by fellow New York House Republicans Nick LaLota, Mike Lawler, Marc Molinaro, Nick Langworthy and Brandon Williams.

I don’t know if this resolution will pass or not and there are a couple of valid arguments in favor of holding off. The original plan was to wait for the House Ethics Committee to finish it’s investigation and deliver a verdict. Alternately, they might have considered waiting until Santos is actually convicted of something before removing him. Also complicating the matter is the GOP’s slim House majority and ongoing battle over the Speakership. Say whatever else you like about Santos, but he’s been a rock-solid vote for the Republican caucus since taking office and they don’t have much of a margin for error currently. Still, the stench surrounding this guy is obviously getting to be too much for some of his colleagues, so perhaps they will just cut him loose anyway and let the chips fall where they may.