George Santos seeks an anonymous jury; The government wants the campaign lies to be accepted as evidence as the trial approaches

NEW YORK (AP) — Former U.S. Rep. George Santos is asking for a partially anonymous jury as federal prosecutors seek to admit into evidence some of his past campaign lies as the disgraced New York Republican’s September fraud trial approaches.

Santos’ lawyers argued in court filings Tuesday that only the judge, both sides and their lawyers should know the identities of individual jurors because of the extraordinary amount of media attention surrounding the case and their client. They said the publicity poses “significant risks” to the “safety, privacy and impartiality of jurors.”

Elected in 2022, Santos represented parts of Queens and Long Island before becoming the sixth lawmaker in history to be expelled from the U.S. House of Representatives in December. He abandoned a long 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 be disturbed or intimidated if their identities are known, potentially compromising the fairness of the trial,” Santos’ lawyers wrote. “Furthermore, the mere risk of public ridicule may affect the ability of individual jurors to decide Santos’ case based solely on the facts and law presented at trial.”

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

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

Among other things, they are trying to admit into evidence some of the lies Santos told during his campaign, including his false claims that he graduated from both New York University and Baruch College, and that he worked for financial giants Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. and that he had a family business with about $80 million in assets, among other financial lies.

They argue that the Wholesales regarding his background are “inextricably intertwined” with the criminal charges he faces and would help “confirm the defendant’s state of mind” at the time.

Santos is accused of several financial crimes, including lying to Congress about his wealth, collecting unemployment benefits while working and using campaign funds to pay for personal expenses such as designer clothes. He has pleaded not guilty

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

They argue that Santos’ claims are “baseless,” “totally irrelevant to his guilt” and only “add disturbing and prejudicial allegations of improper government motives to the trial.”

The Peace’s Office also asked the court to compel Santos to comply with the required pretrial, document-sharing process known as discovery, noting that the government has provided his legal team with more than 1.3 million pages of documents, while they have produced only five pages.

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

Last month, federal judge Joanna Seybert denied Santos’ request to dismiss three of his 23 charges. The parties are due back in federal court in Central Islip on Aug. 13.

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Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.