The House Ethics Committee has opened an investigation into Rep. George Santos (R-NY) that will focus on allegations of sexual misconduct and campaign finance violations—a probe that comes as the embattled freshman congressman is embroiled in a ballooning scandal surrounding these alleged lies and more (UPDATE: Santos has been indicted on fraud and money laundering charges).
His mother’s death: Santos said on his campaign website that his mother, Fatima Devolder, was “in the South Tower” on 9/11 and later succumbed to cancer, but she filed a green card application in 2003 stating that she had not been in the U.S. since 1999, The Forward reported—a contradiction Santos defended on Monday: “I was in the United States when my mother was here, because she had full custody of both her children,” he said, while leaving open the possibility that she could have lied on her visa application.
An early Wall Street career: Santos repeated a confession initially made to The New York Post that he embellished claims of working directly for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, telling Morgan it was “a very stupid decision that I regret every day.”
His “Jewish” heritage: Santos reprised his claim that his maternal grandparents fled Ukraine to escape the persecution of Jewish people during World War II, despite genealogy records reviewed by The Forward that show his maternal grandparents were both born in Brazil—discrepancies “four” pending DNA tests would resolve, Santos assured Morgan, adding that he “grew up with the story” that his grandparents “falsified a lot of their documents . . . in the name of survival.”
Support from Sinema: Santos claimed in a TV interview with Newsmax that he spoke to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) before President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address and that she offered him words of encouragement to the effect of “hang in there buddy”—but a Sinema spokesperson told Forbes Santos was lying, and “Kyrsten did not speak to him.”
Broadway producer: Santos allegedly told potential donors during his most recent campaign for Congress that he was a producer on the Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, Bloomberg reported, but his name never appeared in the show’s playbill and lead producer, Michael Cohl told Bloomberg the congressman wasn’t involved.
An illustrious modeling stint: Santos told his former roommate in 2013 that he was a model who would soon appear in Vogue and had worked at New York Fashion Week, New York Magazine reported in January, citing an interview with Santos’ ex-roommate, Yasser Rabello—but there is no evidence Santos ever worked as a model.
Access to New York high society: Santos said he “used to go to the Met Gala” and “would commission parts of art museums in New York” in an August interview with the Steak for Breakfast podcast (there is no evidence to support either claim).
An assassination attempt: Santos claimed he survived “an attempt on [his] life, an assassination attempt,” in an interview with Rádio Novelo Apresenta shortly after his election in November, though he did not elaborate on the alleged murder attempt.
A Fifth Avenue mugging: In the same interview, Santos said he was the victim of a broad daylight mugging in the summer of 2021: “They took my briefcase, took my shoes and my watch,” he told the Brazilian podcast, which reported it asked Santos for the police report, but never heard back.
His campaign committee treasurer: Santos-aligned fundraising committees reported to the FEC in January that his campaign had a new treasurer, Thomas Datwyler, but a lawyer for Datwyler told multiple outlets he does not work for the campaign.
Dressing in drag: Santos initially denied claims made by two acquaintances that he performed as a drag queen in Brazil, despite his support for socially conservative policies, but after one of them produced a photo that appears to show Santos dressed in drag, he told reporters in January: “I was young and I had fun at a festival,” while continuing to dispute that he was ever a “drag queen.”
A hefty salary: Santos claimed he made a $750,000 salary and up to $10 million in dividends between 2021 and 2022 through a company he founded in 2021 called the Devolder Organization, according to a recent financial disclosure–but he reported making only $55,000 during his 2020 campaign for Congress.
Santos did not report, however, that he received payments as recently as April 2021 from a Florida-based financial services company he used to work for, Harbor City Capital, which was accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of a “classic Ponzi scheme,” The Washington Post reported.
A career selling yachts: Santos told Semafor in December that he made money at Devolder by brokering luxury purchases, like a “$20 million yacht,” for wealthy clients, but refused to provide the publication with a client list or details about the alleged contracts.
A real estate empire: Santos claimed he owned a $1 million apartment in Brazil in financial disclosure forms and said on the campaign trail his family owned 13 real estate properties, but he later told the New York Post he does not own any real estate properties and is living with his sister at her apartment in Queens, where she’s allegedly facing eviction for $40,000 in unpaid rent.
His campaign cash: Santos’ campaign sought donations through a group that billed itself as an independent expenditure committee called Redstone Strategies, but the Federal Election Commission said it could not find evidence Redstone was registered as a political group or records of its donors, contributions or spending, The New York Times reported in January.
Watchdog group the Campaign Legal Center accused Devolder of being a bogus business used to funnel money to the Santos campaign and suspects Santos may have underreported donations and used some of the money on personal expenses, it wrote in a January complaint to the Federal Election Commission.
His inflated resume: Santos claimed he attended the prestigious Horace Mann prep school before graduating summa cum laude from Baruch College with a 3.89 GPA, scoring a 710 on his GMAT exam and earning a master’s degree in international business from New York University–but later admitted to the New York Post he never graduated from college, while a Horace Mann spokesperson told The Times there were no records of him attending.
An animal rescue charity: Santos repeatedly said he founded and owned an animal rescue charity called Friends of Pets United, but after The Times found no IRS documents to back up Santos’ claim, he changed his story to say he only campaigned for the charity and helped find foster homes for the animals.
Santos is facing allegations he used the fake animal charity to set up a GoFundMe account for an unhoused veteran whose dog needed life-saving surgery, then ran off with the money after the account raised $3,000, claims Santos denied, calling them “fake.”
A Covid-19 diagnosis: Santos said in a March 2020 interview, just weeks after the first Covid-19 case was detected in New York, that he had been hospitalized with the disease, which he said was complicated by previous brain tumor–yet he appeared to be healthy at the same time he was allegedly suffering from the virus in interview clips a Washington Post reporter recently uncovered and changed the timeline of his alleged diagnosis in subsequent interviews.
Ties to the Pulse nightclub shooting: Santos admitted that he fabricated his claim that he “lost” four employees in the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, explaining in a recent WABC radio interview with disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY), that he was in the process of hiring the four victims.
His marriage: Santos, who claims to be the first openly gay non-incumbent GOP representative elected to Congress, never disclosed his marriage to a woman, The Daily Beast reported, citing records that show the pair were divorced less than two weeks before he launched his 2020 campaign for Congress.
His criminal background: After The Times uncovered Brazilian court records showing Santos was charged with check fraud in 2008 for allegedly stealing a man’s checkbook and using it to make fraudulent purchases, Brazilian prosecutors announced they would reopen the case.
Santos conceded to CNN’s Piers Morgan on February 20 that he is a “terrible liar,” but blamed his extensive fabrications on the need for acceptance from the Republican party: “It wasn’t about tricking people,” he said.
Santos, who has remained defiant amid calls for his resignation, said on Twitter he is “fully cooperating” with the House Ethics Committee’s investigation.
“He’s a complete and total fraud,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said recently. “[He] lied to the voters of the 3rd Congressional District in New York, deceived and connived his way into Congress. And it’s now the responsibility of House Republicans to do something about it.”
Santos faces calls for him to resign from his Republican colleagues, including at least six New York GOP representatives and the Nassau County Republican Party. Three of those members—Reps. Anthony D’Esposito, Nick LaLota Marc Molinaro—also said they support a resolution sponsored by New York Democratic Reps. Dan Goldman and Ritchie Torres that would expel Santos from Congress. He has said he will not resign unless the “142,000” voters who elected him call on him to do so (more than 145,000 people voted for Santos in the midterm election). In addition to calls for his resignation, Santos faces a slew of ethics and criminal probes into his conduct. Democrats and activist groups have filed complaints against him with the Federal Election Commission, the Office of Congressional Ethics, and the Justice Department, New York Attorney General and Nassau County prosecutor’s offices have also said they are reviewing the allegations. The House Ethics Committee, which is the only bipartisan committee in the House made up of five Democrats and five Republicans, voted unanimously on February 28 to open an investigation into Santos.
A would-be congressional staffer to Santos filed a sexual harassment complaint with the House Ethics Committee and Capitol Police accusing Santos of touching his groin without permission in January, according to a letter the alleged victim, Derek Myers, posted to Twitter. Santos has not publicly commented on the allegations, but told Semafor he rescinded Myers’ offer upon learning the would-be staffer faces wiretapping charges in Ohio after a newspaper he ran published an audio recording of court testimony it obtained from a source.
If Santos resigned or was ejected from Congress (a process that requires a vote of two-thirds of its members), New York Gov. Kathy Hochul would call a special election to replace him. Santos’ removal could be a blow to Republicans, who regained control of the House with a slim four-seat majority after flipping multiple districts previously held by Democrats, including New York’s third congressional district Santos now represents. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), however, has said Santos will be removed from Congress if the Ethics process finds him guilty of wrongdoing.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2023/05/10/heres-everything-george-santos-has-been-accused-of-lying-about/