When George Santos’ fraud trial begins next month, the jury will be anonymous

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) — The fraud trial against former U.S. Rep. George Santos, set to begin in a few weeks, is gaining steam after a federal judge ruled Tuesday that the identities of jurors will be kept secret from the public.

However, they will not be required to complete a written survey designed to gauge their opinion of Santos when they report for jury selection on Sept. 9, as his lawyers had requested.

Judge Joanna Seybert said during a brief hearing in federal court on Long Island that she agreed with the government’s assessment that the questionnaire would only slow down the proceedings.

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She added that interviewing each potential juror in person would allow her and both sides to ask more varied and probing questions, leading to more truthful answers.

Prosecutors told the judge the trial could last three weeks as they expect to hear from at least 30 witnesses, including victims of Santos’ alleged crimes.

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

Seybert called on both sides to work together to “streamline” proceedings where possible.

“Give me hope. Really,” she said. “Sit down and talk about what is absolutely necessary.”

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

But when Robert Fantone, Santos’ lawyer, was asked if he believed his client had a chance at a fair trial, he replied: “I think he’ll be OK.”

In court, Santos’ lawyers rejected prosecutors’ claims in earlier filings that they did not fully participate in the required pre-trial document disclosure process, known as evidentiary disclosure.

Prosecutors this month said they had turned over more than 1.3 million pages of records, while defense attorneys had produced just five pages. But when pressed by the judge, Santos’ lawyers insisted they had turned over all the documents they had.

“We’re not putting up a wall,” said Joe Murray, another Santos lawyer. “Trial by ambush is not my modus operandi.”

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The New York Republican’s lawyers argued in recent court documents that the questionnaire about potential jurors’ “knowledge, beliefs and prejudices” was needed because of the widespread negative media coverage surrounding Santos, who was expelled from Congress in December after an ethics investigation found “overwhelming evidence” that he had broken the law and exploited his public position for personal gain.

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

“For all intents and purposes, Santos has already been found guilty by public opinion,” reads a defense memo filed last week.

But prosecutors, who voiced their opposition in a legal brief filed Friday, argued that Santos’ motion was merely a delaying tactic because the trial date was set more than nine months ago and about 850 potential jurors have already been summoned.

They said the public perception of Santos is “largely a product of his own creation” because he has spent months “courting and gaining” the attention of the press.

Seybert on Tuesday granted Santos’ request for a partially anonymous jury, in which the identities of individual jurors would be known only to the judge, both sides and their lawyers. Prosecutors have previously said they did not oppose the measure given the high-profile nature of the case.

Government lawyers are also seeking to admit into evidence some of the lies Santos told 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 New York University and Baruch College and that he had worked at financial giants Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.

Prosecutors say the wholesale forgery is “inextricably linked” to the criminal charges he faces.

Seybert did not issue an immediate ruling on the matter Tuesday, and Santos’ lawyers declined to comment.

Last month, a federal judge rejected Santos’s request to dismiss three of the 23 charges he faces. Santos dropped his unlikely bid to return to Congress as an independent candidate in April.