Embattled Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) acquired Home committee assignments this week regardless of repeated requires his resignation from Democrats and a few Republicans over the methods he, to place it mildly, misrepresented himself.
The freshman consultant acknowledged that he had “embellished” his resume however added that he did nothing “prison.” Whereas Republicans in his dwelling county need him gone, the response on Capitol Hill has been much less decisive.
And thus Santos ― or the congressman generally known as George Santos ― is now a part of the Committee on Small Enterprise and the Committee on Science, House and Know-how. He’d reportedly lobbied Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to position him on a monetary committee, however prime Republicans didn’t need him there, in line with CNN.
As he faces federal, state and worldwide investigation, Santos has actually had a tough begin to his two-year time period. However he has thus far flatly refused the concept of stepping down, whilst plainly every new day brings to gentle one other wild allegation about his previous. He ran for Congress one different time, in 2020, so there are a number of years’ price of interviews, appearances and marketing campaign supplies wherein Santos shared components of his (alleged) backstory.
It’s exhausting to maintain up ― which is why HuffPost created this listing of issues Santos is accused of mendacity about.
Andrew Harnik through Related Press
His Title
The 34-year-old has reportedly not all the time passed by “George Santos.” According to CNN reporter Andrew Kaczynski, his aliases embody Anthony Santos, George Devolder, Anthony Zabrovsky and George Anthony Santos-Devolder, amongst others. (Devolder was his mom’s surname.)
Earlier this month, video emerged displaying Santos introduce himself as Anthony Devolder at a 2019 occasion in help of then-President Donald Trump.
His Jewish Heritage
Following his election win in November, Santos addressed a Republican Jewish Coalition summit in Las Vegas, the place he was billed as a Jewish Republican. He recognized himself as a “proud American Jew” in marketing campaign supplies obtained by the Jewish information outlet Ahead. However when his heritage was known as into query, Santos advised the New York Publish that he by no means claimed to be Jewish. “I stated I used to be ‘Jew-ish,’” he stated.
He has claimed that Zabrovsky is his household’s unique, Jewish final title. However an expert genealogist advised CNN there was no indication of a reputation change in his lineage.
That He’s A Descendant Of Holocaust Survivors From Ukraine
Santos told Fox News in 2021 that his grandparents “escaped socialism … communism and the Holocaust,” and he repeated the declare throughout his marketing campaign. His grandfather was initially from Ukraine, Santos stated, and fled to Brazil to flee the Nazis. But the Ahead and CNN reported that data on family tree and Jewish refugees didn’t again up Santos’ story. Fairly, the retailers discovered proof that his grandparents have been born in Brazil. The New York Occasions discovered the identical.
That His Mom Was In The Twin Towers On 9/11 …
Santos tweeted in 2021 that “9/11 claimed my moms life.” His marketing campaign web site states that his mom had been contained in the World Commerce Middle’s south tower and survived the assault, passing away a “few years” later of most cancers.
However data obtained by The New York Occasions present that Santos’ mom was not even residing within the nation on the time ― she was in Brazil. An obituary for Santos’ mom, Fatima Devolder, states that she died in 2016.
… And That She Was The ‘First Feminine Govt At A Main Monetary Establishment’
In immigration paperwork reviewed by The New York Occasions, Santos’ mom stated she labored as a housekeeper and residential aide — not because the “first feminine government at a serious monetary establishment,” because the congressman has stated. Individuals who knew Santos’ mom recalled that she made a residing cleansing homes and promoting meals, in line with the outlet.
She was additionally born in Brazil, and never Belgium, as Santos had claimed, in line with CNN.
How He Paid For His Marketing campaign
Marketing campaign finance disclosure varieties present that Santos lent his marketing campaign $700,000, the Occasions stated. He claimed that he earned a wage of $750,000 from an organization known as the Devolder Group (extra on that later).
The supply of Santos’ wealth is unsure. In his mid-to-late 20s, he appeared to battle with monetary difficulties; the Occasions discovered that he confronted eviction twice within the Queens borough of New York Metropolis. However a couple of years later, throughout his 2022 marketing campaign, Santos was reportedly spending tens of hundreds of {dollars} on journey, eating places and lodges in New York, Florida, Texas and California, the Occasions reported.
He raised a lot cash that he donated a few of it to different Republican candidates.
A subsequent New York Occasions investigation discovered questionable dealings by a political group that raised funds for Santos, RedStone Methods. The Washington Publish discovered ties to the cousin of a sanctioned Russian oligarch.
That He Labored In Finance For His Household’s Enterprise
The Devolder Group was described on a Santos marketing campaign web site as his “household’s agency,” The New York Occasions reported. However data on the corporate, which has no public web site or LinkedIn web page, is scant, the Occasions stated. Santos reportedly described it as an outfit that hyperlinks funding funds to rich traders, however it’s not clear who the corporate’s shoppers have been. He advised Semafor that he carried out companies like serving to rich individuals discover yachts to purchase.
He didn’t simply work for the supposed household biz; Santos additionally labored for the Florida funding agency Harbor Metropolis Capital, the place he was employed in 2020 underneath the title George Devolder. The agency was accused by the Securities and Trade Fee of operating a Ponzi scheme and shut down in 2021.
That His Household Had A Fortune In Actual Property
Regardless of his claims on the contrary, The New York Occasions discovered no data of actual property properties belonging to Santos or his instant household within the U.S. (On required varieties from his campaigns, Santos solely disclosed an residence in Rio de Janeiro.)
That 4 Of His Staff Died In The Pulse Nightclub Capturing
In an interview with WNYC, Santos stated that folks working for him have been killed through the 2016 assault on an Orlando homosexual nightclub. The New York Occasions discovered no connections to him or the assorted firms he’s labored for among the many 49 individuals who died at Pulse.
That He Went To An Elite New York Metropolis Prep College
Horace Mann advised CNN it has no file that Santos ever attended. The non-public college additionally checked for aliases.
Santos had claimed in a 2020 YouTube video that his mother and father misplaced cash in the true property market and that he needed to drop out 4 months earlier than commencement, later incomes a GED diploma.
“Sadly my mother and father fell on exhausting occasions, which was … one thing that may later turn into generally known as the melancholy of 2008,” Santos stated. “However we have been hit a little bit earlier on with the over-leveraging of actual property.”
That He Graduated From Faculty
Santos claimed he graduated from Baruch Faculty and New York College, however each establishments advised a number of information retailers they’d no file of him ever attending.
He claimed on a resume that his GPA at Baruch was 3.89 and that he graduated summa cum laude.
He ultimately advised the New York Publish he didn’t graduate from any school.
That He Was A Faculty Volleyball Star
In 2020, Santos appeared on a morning radio present the place he stated that he went to Baruch on a volleyball scholarship and “slayed” groups from Harvard and Yale.
“I sacrificed each my knees and bought very good knee replacements, knee replacements from taking part in volleyball,” Santos claimed on air.
Patrick Semansky through Related Press
That He Labored For Goldman Sachs And Citigroup
The New York Occasions reported that neither Wall Avenue behemoth might provide you with any file of Santos’ employment there, as he had claimed. Santos later advised the New York Publish that the assertion was a “poor selection of phrases,” as he didn’t work “immediately” for the businesses. He additionally advised Fox Information that his declare was “not false in any respect” however moderately “debatable.”
That He Ran An Animal Charity …
There is no such thing as a file that Santos’ supposed charity, Buddies of Pets United, ever existed as a reliable tax-exempt group, The New York Occasions reported after checking with the IRS and lawyer common places of work in New York and New Jersey. The Occasions stated he claimed that he ran a tax-exempt pet charity for 5 years beginning in 2013 ― across the identical time he confronted obvious monetary hassle.
… And That He Did Not Swindle A Homeless Veteran With A Sick Canine
Santos denies an alarming story from a Navy veteran, Richard Osthoff, who advised a New Jersey outlet that he bought in contact with Santos in 2016 for assist financing surgical procedure for his beloved canine, Sapphire. Osthoff stated that on the time, he was residing in a tent on the facet of a freeway, and there was no method he might afford the abdomen most cancers remedy for his pit bull combine. A veterinary technician pointed him to Buddies of Pets United.
Santos, whom Osthoff knew as Anthony Devolder, allegedly helped him elevate $3,000 by means of GoFundMe that summer season, however the veteran stated he by no means noticed a dime. He stated Santos closed the fundraiser and stopped answering texts and calls. A GoFundMe spokesperson advised The Washington Publish that the fundraiser was actual, and that the corporate had banned Santos’ e-mail tackle from getting used on the service.
Sapphire died in January 2017.
His Alleged Legal Previous
Santos advised the New York Publish that he’s not a prison, “not right here or in Brazil or any jurisdiction on the earth.”
Talking on longtime Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s podcast, he stated he’s lived “an sincere life.”
“I simply pray for all of you, after they come for you, that you’ve the identical energy I’ve,” he stated, as NPR reported.
In 2008, Brazilian authorities accused him of stealing a checkbook and fraudulently spending $700. The investigation was stymied by their incapacity to find Santos, in line with The New York Occasions. However together with his election to Congress, they’ve stated they’re reopening the case.
And That He By no means Carried out In Brazil As A Drag Queen Referred to as Kitara
Santos stated the suggestion that he was a drag performer is “categorically false.”
“The media continues to make outrageous claims about my life whereas I’m working to ship outcomes,” he tweeted this week.
A number of reporters, nonetheless, stated they’ve obtained images or video of Santos performing as Kitara, offered by former buddies from the Rio de Janeiro homosexual group.
