The biography of newly elected Congress member George Santos appeared fairly spectacular. The 34-year-old son of immigrants had graduated from Baruch School, a public faculty in New York, earlier than happening to work at companies like Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. Santos finally grew to become a profitable financier who began an animal rescue charity. The issue is that biography was apparently a lie, and now he is likely to be dealing with not solely political penalties however authorized penalties for his wholesale innovations.
As revealed in the New York Instances on December 19, it wasn’t simply that Santos exaggerated his résumé — he had allegedly invented it out of complete fabric.
The Instances discovered that he apparently didn’t graduate from Baruch School, he didn’t work for Goldman Sachs or Citigroup, there have been no data of him being a profitable financier, nor have been there of him registering his animal rescue charity. The Instances additionally discovered that he had been charged with test fraud in Brazil.
Additional, numerous shops have discovered no proof of Santos’s repeated claims to be Jewish, to have Jewish heritage, or to be descended from refugees fleeing the Holocaust. Santos even described himself at one level as a “proud American Jew” in a marketing campaign place paper.
In a media tour with pleasant shops on December 26, Santos admitted to placing “a little bit little bit of fluff” on his résumé. In different phrases, he conceded that he by no means graduated from faculty, by no means labored for Goldman Sachs or Citigroup, and wasn’t Jewish (although he claimed to be “Jew-ish”). Santos disregarded mendacity about fundamental biographical data as embellishment, and he pushed again on the Instances’s reporting about his legal cost in Brazil. “I’m not a legal,” he informed the New York Submit.
The story has sparked one of many more unusual political scandals in American historical past. Members of Congress have dedicated homicide in workplace. In reality, a member of Congress has even killed one other member of Congress. Even within the current day, we’ve seen each scandal below the solar, from Anthony Weiner tweeting a lewd image of himself, to Marjorie Taylor Greene’s notorious Fb put up about Jewish area lasers. Nevertheless it’s laborious to consider a precedent for a scandal like this as Santos faces requires his resignation from fellow Republicans and investigations into potential legal misconduct.
Who’s George Santos?
There are some issues we find out about Santos. The overtly homosexual son of Brazilian immigrants, he was elected in November to an open congressional seat that features a skinny slice of Queens and far of the North Shore of Lengthy Island in Nassau County. Santos defeated Democrat Robert Zimmerman by a margin of 54 p.c to 46 p.c. This represented a serious swing from 2020 when Biden had received the district by the identical margin. That yr, Santos ran in opposition to incumbent Tom Suozzi in an analogous district and misplaced handily by a margin of 56 p.c to 43.5 p.c.
Santos can be an ardent Trump supporter — a lot in order that he was at Trump’s Ellipse rally on January 6, 2021, and has repeatedly falsely claimed that the previous president received the 2020 election.
Additionally, for all his alleged mendacity about his résumé, it’s clear that one firm Santos labored at, Harbor Metropolis Capital, has been accused by the Securities and Change Fee of being a Ponzi scheme. As for Santos’s different employment, he did spend a stint as a Portuguese language customer support agent for DISH Community a decade in the past.
Santos has additionally been accused of organising a GoFundMe that raised $3,000 to pay for lifesaving surgical procedure for the dying service canine of a disabled homeless veteran after which pocketing the cash. He responded on Twitter by claiming “the studies that I’d let a canine die is stunning & insane.” Santos added, “Over the previous 24hr I’ve acquired footage of canines I helped rescue all through the years together with supportive messages.” Politico has reported that this alleged rip-off is being investigated by federal regulation enforcement. Questions have been raised about whether or not he had misappropriated different funds that he had raised on behalf of animal welfare.
He was charged with theft in Pennsylvania in 2017 in connection to writing dangerous checks to Amish canine breeders. The fees have been finally dismissed after Santos satisfied regulation enforcement within the state that his checkbook was stolen.
The New York congressman additionally falsely claimed in a 2017 Seattle courtroom listening to for a convicted fraudster that he labored for Goldman Sachs. Santos made that assertion, in keeping with Politico, at a bail listening to for Gustavo Ribeiro Trelha, who was finally convicted of fraud for skimming card data from ATMs. The 2 males had beforehand shared an condo in Florida. Trelha has since implicated Santos as being the mastermind behind the scheme in a sworn assertion despatched to federal regulation enforcement.
Santos has additionally pushed again in opposition to the declare that he wearing drag whereas residing in Brazil. A drag performer who goes by the title Eula Rochard informed a number of shops that Santos used to carry out in drag below the title “Kitara Ravache.”
Santos initially mounted an aggressive denial on Twitter. “The newest obsession from the media claiming that I’m a drag Queen or ‘carried out’ as a drag Queen is categorically false,” stated the embattled New York Republican. “The media continues to make outrageous claims about my life whereas I’m working to ship outcomes.”
Ultimately, he conceded to reporters at LaGuardia Airport that he did gown in drag however that he was merely having “enjoyable at a pageant.”
What don’t we all know?
We don’t know rather a lot. This ranges from fundamental info about Santos’s biography to particulars about his dealings with the Brazilian legal justice system, and all the pieces in between, together with the place he truly lives.
However most significantly, we don’t know the place Santos’s cash comes from. The consultant loaned his personal marketing campaign $700,000 through the 2022 cycle and claimed an earnings of $750,000. He additionally listed thousands and thousands of {dollars} in belongings together with an condo in Rio De Janeiro value as much as $1 million and a seven-figure financial savings account. It’s a serious shift in fortune for somebody who was evicted twice, in 2015 and 2017, for failing to pay hire and had been taken to courtroom for not paying money owed. Even in 2020, he reported earnings in just one class — compensation in extra of $5,000 paid by one supply — with no different belongings.
Santos initially supplied no data on his funds on his media tour, besides to concede that he owned no property. He had beforehand claimed on Twitter to be a landlord who owned 13 properties. The consultant finally claimed in an interview with Semafor that his newfound wealth got here from “capital introduction” the place he helped dealer offers for the rich. Santos used a yacht sale for instance of how he earned a residing: “For those who’re a $20 million yacht, my referral payment there could be wherever between $200,000 and $400,000.”
What occurs now?
Santos is already being investigated by federal and native prosecutors whereas the workplace of New York Legal professional Common Letitia James has been “trying into among the points which have come out.” Additional, a criticism has been filed with the Federal Election Fee (FEC) by the nonpartisan Marketing campaign Authorized Middle alleging Santos illegally hid the supply of the cash he loaned his marketing campaign by means of a straw donor scheme and different alleged violations, together with whether or not he used marketing campaign funds to pay for private bills. The Washington Submit reported in late January that the Justice Division has requested the FEC to carry off any enforcement actions in order that it may possibly pursue a legal investigation.
Though Santos had initially accepted an task from Home GOP management to take a seat on the science and small enterprise committees, he introduced on January 31 in a gathering of Republican lawmakers that he would step except for these positions. The announcement got here solely a day after a closed-door assembly with McCarthy.
Dan Goldman, a fellow consultant from New York and a former prosecutor, has instructed that Santos face legal investigation for conspiracy to defraud the US in addition to submitting false statements to the FEC.
In a December interview with Vox, Goldman shied away from weighing in on whether or not Santos needs to be denied his seat in Congress. “I feel the larger query will not be whether or not I feel George Santos needs to be a member of Congress. The larger query is whether or not Kevin McCarthy and the Republican management assume that George Santos needs to be a member of Congress.”
A variety of Santos’s fellow Republicans have referred to as on him to resign as nicely. The Nassau County Republican Get together, lengthy thought of probably the most highly effective county get together in New York, referred to as on Santos to step down as produce other New York Republicans, together with Reps. Anthony D’Esposito, Mike Lawler, Nick Langworthy, and Brandon Williams. Joe Cairo, the chair of the Nassau County GOP, informed reporters, “George Santos’ marketing campaign final yr was a marketing campaign of deceit, lies and fabrication” whereas demanding his resignation.
Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), one among solely two Jewish Republicans within the Home and a longtime Trump White Home aide, referred to as on Santos to resign in mid-January, and cited the New York Republican’s lies about his household ties to the Holocaust in doing so.
The end result has left Santos in a state of limbo with no committee assignments and a continuing pack of reporters following him across the Capitol. However, as McCarthy acknowledged to reporters, if the Ethics Committee finds that Santos broke the regulation, the New York Republican needs to be ousted from Congress. Additional, there’s new grist for the Ethics Committee with a potential staffer accusing the New York Congress member in early February of sexual harassment.
Nevertheless, as of now, McCarthy wants Santos nearly as a lot as Santos wants McCarthy. McCarthy solely grew to become speaker by the pores and skin of his enamel on the fifteenth poll. With a slim majority — and the chance of frequent member absences now that the Home has gotten rid of proxy voting — McCarthy wants each vote he can get.
Additional, as a result of Santos represents one of the crucial Democratic seats in Congress held by a Republican, forcing him to resign below any circumstance is dangerous. It will be a troublesome seat for a Republican to carry in a particular election and a loss would additional imperil an already slim GOP majority.
Within the meantime, it’s a matter of ready for the following shoe to drop. As unsustainable as the present established order may appear, the one impetus proper now for Santos to resign can be a way of disgrace, and it appears unlikely that he carries that burden.
Replace, March 9, 8:06 pm ET: This story was initially revealed on December 21, 2022, and has been up to date a number of instances, most lately with information of previous connections to authorized instances in Seattle and Pennsylvania.
