Fraud trial of George Santos to begin next month with an anonymous jury

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. -- Former U.S. Rep. George Santos’ fraud trial in September will have an anonymous jury, but prospective jurors won’t have to fill out a written questionnaire gauging their opinions of him, a federal judge decided Tuesday.

Judge Joanna Seybert confirmed the trial will begin Sept. 9 with jury selection. Lawyers for both sides said the trial is expected to last three weeks.

Santos, who was dressed in a blue suit, declined to speak with reporters outside the courthouse after the hearing, the last expected before the trial.

But when asked whether he believed his client could receive a fair trial, Santos’ lawyer Robert Fantone said, “I think we’re going to be all right.”

Santos has pleaded not guilty to a range of financial crimes, including lying to Congress about his wealth, collecting unemployment benefits while actually working, and using campaign contributions to pay for personal expenses such as designer clothing.

The New York Republican’s lawyers had argued in recent court filings that the written form “concerning potential jurors’ knowledge, beliefs, and preconceptions” was needed because of the extensive negative media coverage surrounding Santos, who was expelled from Congress in December after an ethics investigation found “overwhelming evidence” he had broken the law and exploited his public position for his own profit.

They cited more than 1,500 articles by major news outlets and a " Saturday Night Live " skit about Santos. They also noted similar questionnaires were used in other high-profile federal cases in New York, including the trial of notorious drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

“For all intents and purposes, Santos has already been found guilty in the court of public opinion,” read the defense memo filed last week. “This pervasive and prejudicial publicity creates a substantial likelihood that potential jurors have been exposed to inadmissible and biased information, and have already formed a negative opinion about Santos, thereby jeopardizing his right to a fair trial.”

But prosecutors, voicing their opposition in a legal brief Friday, argued Santos’ request was simply a delay tactic, as the trial date was set more than nine months ago and some 850 prospective jurors have already been summoned to appear at the courthouse on Sept. 9.

The public perception of Santos, they argued, is also “largely a product of his own making” as he’s spent months “courting the press and ginning up” media attention.

“His attempt to complicate and delay these proceedings through the use of a lengthy, cumbersome, and time-consuming questionnaire is yet another example of Santos attempting to use his public persona as both a sword and a shield,” they wrote. “The Court must not permit him to do so.”

Santos' lawyers also asked in their legal filing last week for the court to consider an anonymous jury for the trial. They said the individual jurors’ identities should be known only by the judge, the two sides and their attorneys because of the case's high-profile nature.

Prosecutors said in a written response filed in court Friday that they didn't object to the request.

But lawyers for the government are also seeking to admit as evidence some of the lies Santos made during his campaign. Before he was elected in 2022 to represent parts of Queens and Long Island, he made false claims that he graduated from both New York University and Baruch College and that he’d worked at financial giants Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, prosecutors said.

They argue that the wholesale fabrications about his background are “inextricably intertwined” with the criminal charges he faces.

Santos’ lawyers have declined to comment on the prosecution’s request.

Last month, the federal judge turned down Santos’ request to dismiss three of the 23 charges he faces.

Santos dropped a long-shot bid to return to Congress as an independent in April.

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Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.