Embattled Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) acquired Home committee assignments this week regardless of repeated requires his resignation from Democrats and some 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 “legal.” Whereas Republicans in his residence county need him gone, the response on Capitol Hill has been much less decisive.
And thus Santos ― or the congressman often known as George Santos ― is now a part of the Committee on Small Enterprise and the Committee on Science, Area and Know-how. He’d reportedly lobbied Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to put him on a monetary committee, however high Republicans didn't need him there, based on 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 to date flatly refused the thought of stepping down, at the same time as it appears that evidently every new day brings to mild 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 through which Santos shared elements of his (alleged) backstory.
It’s onerous to maintain up ― which is why HuffPost created this checklist of issues Santos is accused of mendacity about.
His Title
The 34-year-old has reportedly not at all times passed by “George Santos.” In line with 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 exhibiting Santos introduce himself as Anthony Devolder at a 2019 occasion in assist 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 informed 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 informed CNN there was no indication of a reputation change in his lineage.
That He’s A Descendant Of Holocaust Survivors From Ukraine
Santos informed Fox Information 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 had been born in Brazil. The New York Instances 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 Heart’s south tower and survived the assault, passing away a “few years” later of most cancers.
However data obtained by The New York Instances 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 Government At A Main Monetary Establishment’
In immigration paperwork reviewed by The New York Instances, Santos’ mom stated she labored as a housekeeper and residential aide — not because the “first feminine govt at a significant monetary establishment,” because the congressman has stated. Individuals who knew Santos’ mom recalled that she made a residing cleansing homes and promoting meals, based on the outlet.
She was additionally born in Brazil, and never Belgium, as Santos had claimed, based on CNN.
How He Paid For His Marketing campaign
Marketing campaign finance disclosure types present that Santos lent his marketing campaign $700,000, the Instances 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 wrestle with monetary difficulties; the Instances 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 1000's of dollars on journey, eating places and inns in New York, Florida, Texas and California, the Instances reported.
He raised a lot cash that he donated a few of it to different Republican candidates.
A subsequent New York Instances 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 Instances reported. However data on the corporate, which has no public web site or LinkedIn web page, is scant, the Instances stated. Santos reportedly described it as an outfit that hyperlinks funding funds to rich buyers, however it isn't clear who the corporate’s shoppers had been. He informed Semafor that he carried out providers 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 below the title George Devolder. The agency was accused by the Securities and Alternate Fee of working 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 Instances discovered no data of actual property properties belonging to Santos or his fast household within the U.S. (On required types from his campaigns, Santos solely disclosed an house in Rio de Janeiro.)
That 4 Of His Workers Died In The Pulse Nightclub Taking pictures
In an interview with WNYC, Santos stated that folks working for him had been killed through the 2016 assault on an Orlando homosexual nightclub. The New York Instances discovered no connections to him or the assorted corporations 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 informed CNN it has no document that Santos ever attended. The non-public faculty additionally checked for aliases.
Santos had claimed in a 2020 YouTube video that his dad and mom misplaced cash in the actual property market and that he needed to drop out 4 months earlier than commencement, later incomes a GED diploma.
“Sadly my dad and mom fell on onerous instances, which was ... one thing that will later develop into often known as the melancholy of 2008,” Santos stated. “However we had been hit a bit of earlier on with the over-leveraging of actual property.”
That He Graduated From School
Santos claimed he graduated from Baruch School and New York College, however each establishments informed a number of information retailers that they had no document 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 finally informed the New York Publish he didn’t graduate from any faculty.
That He Was A School 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 acquired very good knee replacements, knee replacements from enjoying volleyball,” Santos claimed on air.
That He Labored For Goldman Sachs And Citigroup
The New York Instances reported that neither Wall Avenue behemoth might give you any document of Santos’ employment there, as he had claimed. Santos later informed the New York Publish that the assertion was a “poor selection of phrases,” as he didn't work “straight” for the businesses. He additionally informed Fox Information that his declare was “not false in any respect” however quite “debatable.”
That He Ran An Animal Charity ...
There isn't any document that Santos’ supposed charity, Associates of Pets United, ever existed as a reputable tax-exempt group, The New York Instances reported after checking with the IRS and legal professional basic places of work in New York and New Jersey. The Instances stated he claimed that he ran a tax-exempt pet charity for 5 years beginning in 2013 ― across the similar 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 informed a New Jersey outlet that he acquired 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 Associates of Pets United.
Santos, whom Osthoff knew as Anthony Devolder, allegedly helped him elevate $3,000 via 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 informed 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 informed the New York Publish that he's not a legal, “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 power 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, based on The New York Instances. However along 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, nevertheless, stated they've obtained pictures or video of Santos performingas Kitara, offered by former pals from the Rio de Janeiro homosexual group.
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