George Santos’s former roommate says that the Congressman was the mastermind behind a major credit card fraud scheme, but that he’s only just now speaking out because he was afraid that Santos would go after his family if he spoke the truth. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.
Transcript:
*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
Mike Papantonio: George Santos’ former roommate says that the congressman was the mastermind behind a major credit card fraud scheme. But then he’s only just now speaking out because he was afraid that Santas would go after his family if he spoke the truth. And you know what, Santos probably would. I have Farron Cousins here to talk about this. Every week we do another story on this nutcase. It’s total nutcrackery every time we’re talking about him. So in this situation, we learned that he had this whole network where he’s lifting credit cards, he’s creating fraudulent credit cards, he’s scraping information from legitimate credit cards. He has a whole business set up, right?
Farron Cousins: Yeah. I mean, that’s what this roommate is alleging. And the roommate did go to jail for it. He was arrested, then deported back to Brazil. But according to a letter that this former roommate has now sent to federal authorities in the US, he said, George Santos is the guy who not only got me involved in this, he gave me the equipment, he showed me how to use it. We had a 50 50 agreement that every dollar I stole, he would get 50 cents of it. This is about as strong of a case as you can imagine. And what’s funny is that about a month ago, a piece of this story had come out that linked Santos to this case that said, hey, by the way, there’s a weird incidence where a man in Seattle was arrested for skimming credit card numbers. And he had a box in his car filled with skimming devices.
Mike Papantonio: Right.
Farron Cousins: That had George Santos’ address on it.
Mike Papantonio: Okay. Give us his, give us his other name. Okay. Santos was operating this, this fraud scheme, God, the guy looks like a fraudster. He looks like a fraudster, but okay. So he’s operating this fraud scheme. He’s stealing credit cards, he’s scraping credit card information. He’s actually robbing ATM machines in effect. And so while this is going on, his friend who got caught, Santos says, I’m gonna help you. I’m actually going to get El Chapo’s lawyer. Right. That’s part of the story. He tells his poor friend who’s sitting in prison, in jail, I’m getting El Chapo’s personal lawyer to come help you. What happens?
Farron Cousins: Obviously El Chapo’s lawyers did not show up to save the day. So, and once again, it’s just more lies from Santos. And even more disgusting, Santos then goes to Seattle to testify at the bond hearing. You know, we’re trying to get this guy out on bail, and he says, don’t worry, judge, I can vouch for him. I work at Goldman Sachs. And the judge, the judge even goes, he goes, whoa, well hold up. You, you work at Goldman Sachs in New York? He says, yes, I do.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. Another lie.
Farron Cousins: So he lies to the judge trying to get his friend outta jail. He’s also told the media that, oh, I was an informant in this case. You’re not gonna be an informant in the case and then go to argue to get the guy out on bail. So every piece of the story Santos had told us, as best we can tell, is a lie.
Mike Papantonio: I mean, I forget the number of lies. First of all, he says, I’m Jewish. My parents were caught up in the Holocaust. He says, I have this career where I’m a Goldman Sachs advisor. I mean, it’s one thing.
Farron Cousins: I was an award-winning volleyball star.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Farron Cousins: Until my knees gave out. None of it even happened. His mom died in 9/11. She hadn’t been in the country since 1999.
Mike Papantonio: Okay.
Farron Cousins: It’s endless.
Mike Papantonio: So his poor friend who is part of his fraud scheme, his credit card fraud scheme, he goes to jail and then he’s deported. Can we deport this guy? I mean, is there a way to deport him? The real question comes down to why in the hell are the Republicans not getting rid of him? Because you got an election coming up, Mr. and Mrs. Republican, you got an election come up. This guy is gonna be hung around your head. So the best thing you can do right now is get rid of him. Hope that people forget who Santos is. Hopefully get him sent back to Brazil after you put him in prison. But I don’t know why McCarthy won’t pull the, he won’t pull the trigger.
Farron Cousins: It’s so dumb. You guys have more than enough evidence right now. Hold the vote, kick him out, and he’s gone.
Mike Papantonio: You still have a majority, they still have a majority even without him.
Farron Cousins: Right.
Mike Papantonio: You don’t need him.
Farron Cousins: Yeah. His one seat is not make or break it for these Republicans. So kick him out. Sure, you’ll lose the seat, but you also lose this liability that as we’ve seen the stories keep getting worse, they’re not gonna get better.
Mike Papantonio: Is this another example of the Justice Department not doing their job? Again, every time we come on this show, we have another story about the Justice Department not doing their job. Why didn’t they arrest him? They had all of this information to begin with way back then. When they threw his pal in prison, they had the same information. They stood by and let it happen, didn’t they?
Farron Cousins: Yep. But at least the investigators in Seattle, they never closed the investigation officially.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah.
Farron Cousins: So they might still be able to take him down. So maybe he’ll end up in prison in Seattle. Maybe it’ll be federal prison. Maybe he’ll be deported. But there’s a jail cell somewhere waiting for this guy.
Mike Papantonio: I hope so. Brazil or the US.
