Gov. George Santos was in court on Tuesday morning.
Santos went to a status meeting to talk about a possible plea deal for fraud charges.
Santos looked happy, and he and his lawyer could be seen laughing and smiling as they walked in.
Santos said he hurt his foot, which is why he was wearing Ferragamo sneakers instead of his expensive red shoes.
As soon as he left court, he wasn’t being himself and talking.
When asked if there was a plea deal, he wouldn’t say. Instead, he sipped coffee as he was driven away. He didn’t talk about what was going on in court about a possible guilty plea.
Prosecutors say they are “in the process of negotiating plea deals with the goal of ending this case without a trial.” But authorities wanted to move the trial date up to the spring in case they couldn’t come to an agreement.
The judge said that she thinks the case should start in September because the defense has to look over 1.3 million evidence materials.
At the same time, Santos is making a lot of money on Cameo. He raised his fee from $75 to $500 per message. After being kicked out, he told Marcia Kramer of CBS New York on “The Point” that he made more in seven days on Cameo than he did in Congress.
“The idea came from someone who used to work for Kevin McCarthy.” He reached out and told George, “You have such a big personality.” “People love you,” Santos told him.
The $500,000 bond lets Santos go free.
Before going into court, he told media that all he had to say was “Happy Holidays.” He also said, “I wish you guys would stop saying my name.”
The prosecutors told the judge that they plan to keep talking about plea deals, but no official offer has been made yet.
Two federal indictments issued earlier this year list a number of crimes against Santos, including wire fraud, identity theft, campaign finance violations, and more. He is being charged with almost twenty crimes.
He was kicked out of Congress on December 1.