Santos Aide Who Impersonated McCarthy Staff Member Faces Federal Charges

A campaign aide to Representative George Santos who impersonated Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s former chief of staff was charged with wire fraud and identity theft in a federal indictment unsealed on Wednesday.

Federal prosecutors said the aide, Samuel Miele, was behind “fraudulent fund-raising” emails and phone calls that were sent and made to more than a dozen potential campaign contributors.

In his solicitations, Mr. Miele, 27, claimed to be a “high-ranking aide to a member of the House with leadership responsibilities,” the indictment said. When Mr. Miele successfully obtained campaign contributions, he received a 15 percent commission.

He was arraigned on Wednesday morning in federal court in Brooklyn and pleaded not guilty, according to John Marzulli, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District of New York. He was released on $150,000 bond.

The indictment, which was filed on Tuesday, does not name Mr. Santos, a first-term Republican representing parts of Long Island and Queens. Nor does it provide more details about the House aide Mr. Miele is said to have impersonated or the member with whom he is associated.

But The New York Times and other news outlets have previously reported that Mr. Miele impersonated Mr. McCarthy’s then-chief of staff in a bid to solicit funds for Mr. Santos’s campaign. Mr. McCarthy later confirmed those reports and said that Mr. Miele was fired after Mr. Santos learned of his actions.

“My staff raised concerns when he had a staff member who impersonated my chief of staff, and that individual was let go when Mr. Santos found about it,” Mr. McCarthy told reporters in January. A spokesman for Mr. McCarthy did not respond to a message seeking comment on Wednesday.

According to the indictment, Mr. Miele sent emails from an account with the Republican staff member’s full name and signed his messages using that person’s official title.

Mr. Miele was charged with four counts of wire fraud in connection with specific emails he sent between August and October 2021. He was also charged with aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison if he is convicted.

Mr. Miele’s lawyer, Kevin H. Marino, said in a statement that Mr. Miele “looks forward to complete vindication at trial as soon as possible.”

The case against Mr. Miele was filed by the same legal team that is prosecuting Mr. Santos in a separate case involving wire fraud. In a letter filed Wednesday, the lawyers advised the court that the two cases should be presumed to be related “because the facts of each case arise out of overlapping events.”

Mr. Santos, 35, was charged with 13 counts that include money laundering, wire fraud, theft of public funds and false statements following an investigation into his finances that began last year. He has pleaded not guilty.

His lawyer did not immediately return a request for comment.

According to the indictment, Mr. Miele wrote an email to Mr. Santos in which he admitted “faking my identity to a big donor,” but added that he was “high risk, high reward in everything I do.”

Mr. Santos and Mr. Miele have worked closely together over the years. Between June 2020 and January 2022, Mr. Santos’s campaign paid Mr. Miele and a Florida company tied to him more than $90,000 for fund-raising efforts, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. A 2020 recount fund set up to aid Mr. Santos paid $15,000 more for consulting work.

Mr. Miele also collaborated with Mr. Santos on ventures extending beyond his campaign. Mr. Miele’s company was hired by Rise NY, a political action committee focusing on voter registration that was run by Mr. Santos’s sister. And it was contracted to do consulting work in 2021 alongside Mr. Santos’s start-up, Redstone Strategies, for the long-shot congressional campaign of Tina Forte, a Republican running to represent parts of the Bronx and Queens, Federal Election Commission records show.

For his part, Mr. Santos is also facing charges related to fraudulent appeals to donors. Prosecutors accused Mr. Santos and an unnamed associate in 2022 of working together to solicit at least $50,000 in donations for what the two falsely claimed was a super PAC.

Mr. Santos pocketed the money for personal expenses, prosecutors said, including luxury designer clothing and credit card payments.

Karen Zraick contributed reporting. Kirsten Noyes contributed research.