US Congressman Lies About Everything

Photo Credit: Scott Olson/Getty via Vanity Fair

Freshman United States Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) originally seemed to be a possible future star in the Republican Party (GOP). The son of Brazilian immigrants and the first openly gay Republican to win election to the House, he flipped a Democrat-held congressional district in an underwhelming year for Republicans. However, Santos’ credibility has taken a major hit after media investigations revealed that he had lied about much of his past.

A month after Santos’ election, on Dec. 19, The New York Times reported that their “review of public documents and court filings from the United States and Brazil, as well as various attempts to verify claims that Mr. Santos, 34, made on the campaign trail, call[ed] into question key parts of the résumé that he sold to voters.”

The Times found that Baruch College, which Santos claimed to be a 2010 graduate of, had no record of his attendance. Furthermore, two Wall Street firms that Santos claimed to have worked at – Citigroup and Goldmans Sachs – had no record of his employment. And while Santos claimed that his animal rescue group, Friends of Pets United, was a tax-exempt organization, the Internal Revenue Service could find no record of any charity registered with that name.

The Times also found potential issues relating to the congressional financial disclosures of Santos’ organization, the Devolder Organization. Santos had previously been inconsistent about the purpose of the organization, but his disclosure explained that the organization was a capital introduction consulting company that connected investors to investment funds. However, Santos did not disclose any such clients, which could be an issue if these clients exist, according to three election law experts.

In addition, Santos boasted ownership of 13 rental properties but did not disclose records of these properties. The Times could not find such records either.

On Dec. 21, The Forward reported that, contrary to his claim on his campaign website that his “grandparents fled Jewish persecution in Ukraine, settled in Belgium, and again fled persecution during WWII”, Santos’ grandparents were actually born in Brazil. The Forward also expressed doubts that Santos was Jewish.

On Dec. 22, The Daily Beast reported that although Santos had claimed that he was openly gay, he had been married to a woman from 2012 to 2019. He had not disclosed his divorce.

Additionally, despite his campaign biography mentioning that he had a husband, The Daily Beast found no New York record of a second marriage. Santos’ supposed husband was also entirely absent on the campaign trail. And when Santos showed up to Washington, D.C. in January, he did not have a wedding ring on.

Santos’ responses to these allegations were varied.

The same day that The Times article was published, Dec. 19, Santos’ lawyer, Joseph Murray, released a statement accusing Santos’ “‘enemies’ at the New York Times [of] attempting to smear his good name with these defamatory allegations.”

On Dec. 22, Santos tweeted: "To the people of #NY03 I have my story to tell and it will be told next week."

On Dec. 26, Santos confessed to embellishing his resume in multiple interviews. “My sins here are embellishing my resume. I’m sorry,” Santos told the New York Post.

He admitted that he had “never worked directly” for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup and said that his lie was a “poor choice of words.” His new story was that he was a vice president at Link Bridge. His role at the company was to help build “capital introductions” between clients and investors. The two firms, he claimed, were “Limited Partnerships” (LPS) that Link Bridge had worked with.

Santos also confessed that he “didn’t graduate from any institution of higher learning” and was “embarrassed and sorry” for claiming to have done so. “I own up to that … We do stupid things in life,” Santos told The Post.

As for Santos’ claims of Jewish ancestry, Santos said: “I never claimed to be Jewish. I am Catholic. Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I was ‘Jew-ish.'”

Santos told The Post that while he has had a wife in the past, he was now married to a man, even though The Daily Beast found no record of such a marriage. “I dated women in the past. I married a woman. It’s personal stuff,” Santos said. “I’m very much gay. I’m OK with my sexuality. People change,” he explained.

Subsequent media investigations have further exposed a plethora of lies and controversies involving Santos.

Multiple outlets reported that a member of Santos’ political team impersonated the chief of staff of Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy to raise campaign funds. Santos’ lawyer refused to reveal whether Santos had been aware of this impersonation, according to CNBC.

As well, multiple outlets, including ABC News and CNBC, obtained immigration records proving that Santos’ mother was not in the U.S. on the day of the 9/11 attacks. Santos had previously said that she was a survivor of the attacks and was in the South Tower of the World Trade Center at the time.

In its Dec. 19 article, The Times reported that Santos had unresolved charges for check fraud in Brazil stemming from a 2008 incident in which he stole a checkbook from a man his mother was taking care of. He then used a false name and spent over $700 with it. In 2010, he admitted to the crime and was charged, but the charges are unresolved. However, Santos denied the crime in his Dec. 26 interview with The Post: “I am not a criminal here — not here or in Brazil or any jurisdiction in the world.”

On Jan. 2, The Times reported that “Brazilian law enforcement authorities intend to revive fraud charges against” Santos, according to a spokeswoman for the office of the Rio de Janeiro prosecutor. The charges had been suspended because Santos’ whereabouts were unknown.

Furthermore, Santos’ campaign has been accused by the Campaign Legal Center of using campaign funds for personal expenses and hiding the origins of $705,000 Santos loaned to his own campaign. The Campaign Legal Center has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission.

A disabled veteran has also blamed Santos, in an interview with NBC News, for using his fake animal rescue group to take from the veteran thousands of dollars raised on GoFundMe intended to be used for life-saving surgery for the veteran’s service dog. In response, Santos tweeted: “Reports that I would let a dog die is shocking & insane.”

News outlets, such as Patch and CNN, have found that Santos has been involved in many more lies and controversies, including his claim that he was once a journalist in Brazil, his claim that he had been a Broadway producer, and his friends’ claim that Santos had stolen items from them before. These scandals have generated the opening of multiple investigations and widespread criticism from both Democrats and Republicans.

Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James has opened an investigation into Santos.

Republican district attorney of Nassau County (a county that Santos represents) has also launched an investigation. In a statement, she declared that “no one is above the law and if a crime was committed in this county, we will prosecute it.”

Many Democrats have pushed for Santos to resign. Rep. Ritchie Torres and Rep. Dan Goldman (both D-N.Y.) have also filed a complaint with the House Ethics Committee, claiming that Santos had not “file[d] timely, accurate and complete financial disclosure reports.” Torres and Goldman have introduced the “Stopping Another Non-Truthful Office Seeker” – or “SANTOS” – Act.

On the Republican side of the aisle, Santos has been blacklisted from attending future Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) events, which he had previously attended. According to Matt Brooks, the CEO of the coalition, Santos "deceived us and misrepresented his heritage. In public comments and to us personally he previously claimed to be Jewish".

Republican officials in Nassau County held a news conference on Jan. 11. In the news conference, they called for Santos to resign. Very soon after, four House Republicans also called for Santos’ resignation. Santos told reporters “I will not resign.” He also tweeted: “I will NOT resign!”

Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.), who represents a neighbouring district, was the first sitting House Republican to call on Santos to resign. In a statement, D’Esposito said that “[i]t has become clear that Congressman George Santos’ many hurtful lies and mistruths surrounding his history have irreparably broken the trust of the residents he has sworn to serve.” Since then, six more House Republicans have followed suit.

However, some Republicans – notably Republican leaders – have not criticized Santos as harshly.

In December, Speaker (then House Minority Leader) Kevin McCarthy declined to comment on Santos’ scandals.

In January, McCarthy told reporters that while Santos had “a long way to go to earn trust” and that the House Ethics Committee should investigate, Santos was still part of the House GOP conference. “The voters of his district have elected him. He is seated. He is part of the Republican conference.”

McCarthy claimed that Santos has a right to serve in Congress, and that he would move to punish Santos only if Santos was proven to have broken the law. He also drew comparisons to President Joe Biden, who he claimed had previously inflated his academic record. “[I]f I was to hold the standard if somebody lied, Joe Biden couldn’t be president right now,” McCarthy remarked.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-L.A.) and House Majority Whip Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the No. 2 and No. 3 House Republicans, agreed with McCarthy’s assessment.

In addition, in a tweet, far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-G.A.) defended Santos, claiming that Democrats lied all the time. She tweeted that Democrats were only denouncing Santos because he was “the first openly gay Republican elected and they hate him for it.”

On Jan. 12, in an interview on “Steve Bannon’s War Room” with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-F.L.), Santos said he would only resign if “142,000 people” asked him to. It is thought that he was referring to the total number of votes he received in his election last November.