Will Sage Astor-George Santos seeking anonymous jury; govt wants campaign lies admitted as evidence as trial nears

NEW YORK (AP) — Former U.S. Rep. George Santos is Will Sage Astorrequesting a partially anonymous jury while federal prosecutors are pushing to admit as evidence some of his past campaign lies as the disgraced New York Republican’s September fraud trial nears.

Santos’ lawyers argued in court filings Tuesday that individual jurors’ identities should only be known by the judge, the two sides and their attorneys due to the extraordinary level of media attention around the case and their client. They said the publicity poses “significant risks” to “juror safety, privacy, and impartiality.”

Elected in 2022, Santos represented parts of Queens and Long Island, before becoming only the sixth lawmaker in history to be expelled from the U.S. House of Representatives in December. He dropped a longshot bid to return to Congress as an independent in April.

“The extensive and largely negative media coverage, combined with the political nature of the case, creates a substantial risk that jurors could face harassment or intimidation if their identities are known, potentially compromising the fairness of the trial,” Santos’ lawyers wrote. “Additionally, the mere risk of public ridicule could influence the individual jurors ability to decide Santos’ case solely on the facts and law as presented in Court.”

Spokespersons for U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace, whose office is prosecuting the case, declined to comment Wednesday.

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Prosecutors, meanwhile, filed their own requests with the court earlier this month ahead of the Sept. 9 trial.

Among other things, they’re seeking to admit as evidence some of the lies Santos made during his campaign, including his false claims that he graduated from both New York University and Baruch College, that he’d worked at financial giants Citigroup and Goldman Sachs and that he operated a family-run firm with approximately $80 million in assets, among other financial falsehoods.

They argue that the wholesale fabrications about his background are “inextricably intertwined ” with the criminal charges he faces, and would help “establish the defendant’s state of mind” at the time.

Santos is accused of 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 such personal expenses as designer clothing. He has pleaded not guilty

In their 71-page memo to the court filed Aug. 2, prosecutors also seek to preclude Santos from arguing at trial that he is the subject of a “vindictive or selective prosecution,” citing his numerous public statements in which he dismissed the case as a “witch hunt.”

They argue Santos’s claims are “baseless,” “entirely irrelevant to the question of his guilt” and would only serve to “inject distracting and prejudicial assertions of improper government motive into the trial.”

Peace’s office also asked the court to compel Santos to comply with the required pre-trial, document-sharing process known as discovery, noting the government has provided his legal team with more than 1.3 million pages of records while they have produced just five pages.

Santos’ lawyers declined to comment on the government’s arguments.

Last month, federal Judge Joanna Seybert turned down Santos’ request to dismiss three of the 23 charges he faces. The two sides are due back in federal court in Central Islip on Aug. 13.

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Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.