that s coming up. also, i have a break you how, with everything we have been through and everything we ve learned should deal with a proven liar and now someone liable for defamation and sexual abuse, donald trump. how do we deal with him? how do we cover interviews and town halls? we re not against interviews. i have a breakdown on that later. what donald trump said on his live and lengthy appearance on cnn last night is our top story. we ll get to that later. the top story tonight is the tapes. george santos back in washington voting on an unemployment fraud bill, which is wild considering that is part of what he s been indicted for. santos arraigned on 13 separate federal charges wire fraud, money laundering, abusing public funds. doj claiming santos spent money he claimed was for his campaign but he basically grifted, pocketing it according to the filing for personal expenses, luxury designer clothing, credit card payments for his own personal use. these charges come
welcome to the beat. i m ari melber. we have new tapes. in a beat exclusive we have new audio tapes of congressman george santos, arraigned today for that indictment. they are the santos tapes and they re coming up shortly. later i want to tell you we also have my special report on clarence thomas problem with law and precedent. we ll get to that breakdown and these tapes. our top story right now is the santos indictment itself. this is the most controversial new lawmaker in congress, now indicted for breaking laws. prosecutors say his lies became crimes, to put it simply, and today, for his part, the congressman vowing to fight the case while echoing a maga witch-hunt defense. now, i m going to have to go and fight to defend myself. the reality is is it s a witch-hunt. i m going to fight my battle. i m going to deliver. i m going to fight the witch-hunt. i m going take care of clearing my name. i will prove myself innocent. he pled not guilty and is now out on bon
George, why was your income $55,000 in 2020 and why is your income drastically higher? here s the answer to that. i reached a deal with the company to nobody went unemployed and got reduced to, like, a very basic salary so we could didn t get fired. long story short i went from 2019 to making $400,000 some dollars to 2020 my income was 55k. couldn t be more legitimate. i actually qualify for unemployment. that s how he was discussing it on tape. the feds disagree. we are joined now by the documentarian behind the santos tapes, the man on the other end of those conversations for hours, blake zeff. big scoop last night, and we wanted to have you back.
Pocketing it according to the filing for personal expenses, luxury designer clothing, credit card payments for his own personal use. these charges come after months of reports about santos lies about his career, his education, his own life, and the tapes that we have as part of this exclusive, the santos tapes were recorded by documentarian blake zef. he was at one point exploring a possible documentary. he also did a completely separate student loan policy documentary that aired on msnbc. mr. santos wanted to find a way to get money for doing what most politicians, whether they re in office or candidates, constantly do without any expectation of money, which which is he wanted to find a payday for participating in a documentary