Justice Department prosecutors have charged Rep. George Santos with federal offenses, three sources familiar with the matter told NBC News on Tuesday.
One source told the network that Santos could surrender at the federal courthouse in the Eastern District of New York in the morning, and is expected to make a court appearance on Wednesday afternoon.
A congressional source said that Santos learned about the charges on Tuesday. His lawyer has not returned requests for comment.
The New York Republican, who faced legal and political pressure to resign from Congress after he admitted to lying about parts of his background, is the subject of multiple investigations into his finances and other issues.
No court documents associated with the case were immediately available. CNN first reported the pending charges.
A New York prosecutor launched an investigation against Santos in late December after he admitted to “embellishing” his resume.
Later, the US House Ethics Committee announced that it would investigate Santos over allegations that he lied extensively about his background and violated campaign finance laws.
Some of the biggest questions around Santos” campaign activity have centered on the financial windfall that allowed him to report a personal loan of $705,000 to his successful 2022 campaign. In Santos” previous, failed bid for Congress, in 2020, his personal financial disclosure form listed no assets and a salary of $55,000.
Santos did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Despite the investigations against him, Santos officially announced last month he will seek reelection in 2024 to represent New York”s 3rd Congressional District.
Santos has also come under fire for falsely claiming to have Jewish heritage. The Forward had questioned a claim on Santos” campaign website that his grandparents “fled Jewish persecution in Ukraine, settled in Belgium, and again fled persecution during WWII.”
In another story, the site noted that he had called himself a “proud American Jew” in a position paper that was shared with Jewish and pro-Israel leaders during his campaign.
Santos later maintained that he still identifies as “Jew-ish” despite reports showing that his grandparents were Catholics born in Brazil.
