George Santos totally caught off guard by his criminal indictment

| 8:48 pm EDT May 9, 2023
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Here’s the thing about Department of Justice criminal investigations: very little tends to publicly surface about them while they’re going on. For instance, a few months ago a major media outlet reported that the DOJ was criminally investigating House Republican George Santos in relation to his various acts of financial fraud. Then we heard basically nothing about the case, until the news came out of nowhere tonight that he’d just been criminally charged by the DOJ.

If you were caught off guard by the news, it turns out you weren’t the only one. Right after CNN reported that Santos had been criminally indicted by a division of the DOJ on unspecified charges, AP reporter Farnoush Amiri called Santos and asked for comment. Santos’ reply: “That’s news to me.”

Of course Santos could be lying about this too. After all, the guy lies about pretty much everything, all the time, even when there’s no reason to do so, even when the truth would have better served his goals. But in reality, criminal targets like Santos really are typically in the dark about the criminal cases the DOJ is building against them, right up until the indictment hammer drops.