George Santos Posts $500K Bond and Calls Charges Against Him a "Witch Hunt"

Indicted on 13 federal charges Wednesday morning, including wire fraud and money laundering, Rep. George Santos held a bizarre press conference after his arraignment in which he insisted he would not resign and that he still intends to run for reelection.

A profuse liar, Santos, who was elected to represent a Long Island district last year, was released on a $500,000 bond in the afternoon after being arrested earlier Wednesday morning.

He was the first gay Republican representative to win an election who wasn't an incumbent.

“We have the information that the government wants to come after me on, and I’m going to comply,” Santos said to the scrum of reporters who had to be herded toward an awaiting podium at one point. Pandemonium broke out as Santos stepped into public view, and every assembled journalist wanted to speak with him.

“I’ve been complying throughout this entire process,” the New York congressman said. “I have no desire not to comply at this point. They’ve been gracious in there. Now I’m going to have to go and fight to defend myself.”

In his press conference outside the federal courthouse in Central Islip, Santos called the 13-count indictment a “witch hunt” and attempted to attack President Biden as a criminal whose crimes are being ignored, casting himself as an innocent victim of government prosecutors.

“It’s a witch hunt because it makes no sense that in four months, four months, five months, I’m indicted when you have Joe Biden’s entire family receiving deposits from nine family members receiving money from foreign destinations into their bank accounts,” he insisted. “It’s been years of exposing. A lot of you here have reported on them, and yet no investigation is launched into them. I’m going to fight.”

Dozens of reporters and photographers there to cover his remarks objected to his framing and jeered as the fabulist spoke.

Santos was asked about the odds of his reelection.

“I will not resign,” Santos declared.

He paused when asked if he thought he could win another congressional race.

“That’s not up for me to know.,” he said. “Elections are very tricky, and it’s up to the people. I trust them to decide what’s best.”

Santos said he was returning to Washington, D.C., to vote on a bill tomorrow.

“We have one of those consequential votes in this Congress, which is a border bill, and I’m very looking forward to being there to vote,” he said.

Santos also seemed to imply that because he’s facing criminal charges, he fits into Congress more than before and should be successful.

“The way I look at it, I’ll be a chairman of a committee in a couple of years. If you just look at the standards of Congress,” Santos quipped. “Look at the Senate.”

Finally, responding to a reporter’s question about his stress level because he appeared to her to be under a lot of stress during the court proceeding, Santos demurred.

“I did the best I could to just keep my composure. I was fine,” he said. Then he added, “This has been an experience for a book or something like that.”

Watch Rep. George Santos’s wild press conference below.

George Santos news conference after court appearancewww.youtube.com