The Disappointment of George Anthony Devolder-Santos: Damned Congressman-Elect George Santos
A Republican in Nassau said Monday that George Santos should clear his name in the face of accusations, as there are serious problems with his resume.
Castro thinks that more people will lie about their qualifications to win office if they are allowed to serve in congress after lying about their qualifications.
The GOP is worried about how his potential impact on the rest of the ticket will affect them and he admitted to lying about certain aspects of his resume.
At times, the biography ofSantos lists his education at New York University and Baruch College, where he received degrees in finance and economics. A NYU spokesperson, John Beckman, told CNN on Monday, “the University’s records do not reflect anyone with that name George Anthony Devolder-Santos attended NYU. A spokesperson for Baruch College also on Monday told CNN it could not find a record of anyone with his name or birthday ever attending the school.
The discrepancies raise questions for Santos as he prepares to officially take on his role as a lawmaker in January as part of the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives.
“We are very disappointed in Congressman-elect Santos,” RJC CEO Matt Brooks said in a statement. He lied about his heritage and deceived us. In public comments, he claimed to be a Jew. He has begun his tenure in Congress on a very wrong note.”
Josh Lafazan, a member of the Nassau County Legislature in New York and a former candidate for New York’s 3rd Congressional District, said Tuesday that Santos should resign immediately.
He plans to write letters to the House ethics committee requesting an investigation, as well as calling for the attorney general’s office to look into potential campaign finance violations.
“Congressman-elect George Santos has told some fantastic lies. Lying about where you live, lying about where you went to college, lying about your employees dying in a mass shooting, lying about where you worked – these are disqualifications for office,” Lafazan said during a news conference.
CNN also confirmed that Santos listed on his 2022 financial disclosure a salary of $750,000 this year and last at the Devolder Organization, which Santos has claimed is a “family firm” managing $80 million in assets.
The business was temporarily considered “in active” by the state after failing to file the required annual reports. There was no website that could be found or a profile onLinkedIn thatSantos could report any of his clients that he served.
Santos also claimed he founded and ran his own charity called “Friends of Pets United.” The IRS did not have an organization that existed in the database, nor in the charities in New York state and Florida.
Santos has admitted to fabricating sections of his resume – including his past work experience and education – and has apologized but says he intends to serve in Congress.
House Republican leaders have not acknowledged the controversy swirling around Santos. Kevin McCarthy, the leader of the House GOP, has kept his focus on the speakership as well as the talks aboutSantos. After Republicans won a narrow majority, the task became harder for him. Asking Santos to step down could cost him a vote in his already tenuous quest to reach 218.
If the House Ethics Committee were to give him any committee assignments, it would be up to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
“As a Navy man who campaigned on restoring accountability and integrity to our government, I believe a full investigation by the House Ethics Committee and, if necessary, law enforcement, is required,” GOP Rep.-elect Nick LaLota said in a statement.
Rep.-elect Anthony D of New York called on Santos to pursue a path of honesty, but stopped short of calling for an investigation.
It is unlikely House Republican leadership will refuse to seat Santos, who is scheduled to be sworn in with the rest of the new members of Congress next Tuesday. The House has the power under the Constitution to expel any member with a two-thirds vote, but doing so is extremely rare and only five lawmakers have been expelled in US history.
In the past, the California Republican has shown little appetite for punishing his own members for bad behavior – particularly when it comes to actions from before they were a member of Congress. McCarthy has also declined to weigh in when members are under investigation, arguing he will let the probes play out before determining how to proceed.
“This will not deter me from being an effective member of the United States Congress in the 118th session,” Santos told City & State in an interview posted Monday night.
Nassau County Republican Committee Chairman Joseph G. Cairo, Jr., said Tuesday that Santos “has broken the public trust” and “has a lot of work to do to regain the trust of voters.”
“I am deeply disappointed in Mr. Santos, and I expected more than just a blanket apology,” Cairo said in a statement. “The damage that his lies have caused to many people, especially those who have been impacted by the Holocaust, are profound.”
CNN reported that the claims that his grandparents survived the Holocaust are false, as well as other information like family trees and records of Jewish refugees.
When asked about it by a former congress person,Santos replied, “My heritage is Jewish.” I’ve always been identified as Jewish. I was raised a practicing Catholic.”
The incoming congressman will not be welcome at any future GOP event, according to the Republican Jewish Coalition.
He also admitted that he never worked directly for the financial firms Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, as he has previously suggested, but claimed that he did do work for them through his company, telling the New York Post it was a “poor choice of words” to say he worked for them.
Defend Congressman George Santos with an Outburst at the FAA: Investigations by the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office
CBS News first reported the federal probe, which comes as the Nassau County district attorney’s office announced Wednesday that it was looking into fabrications from Santos.
“The numerous fabrications and inconsistencies associated with Congressman-Elect Santos are nothing short of stunning,” said Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly.
She said that residents in New York’s 3rd Congressional District need an honest and accountable representative in Congress. No one is above the law and if a crime was committed in this county, we will prosecute it.”
A source with knowledge of the matter tells CNN that federal prosecutors in New York are looking into his finances because of questions about his sudden wealth and loans to his campaign.
Soon to be freshman member from New York and Republican, Mike Lawler urged his fellow lawmaker to cooperate with any investigations and called on him to apologize for the controversy. Lawler added that by downplaying action’s, Santos is “only making things worse.”
Records that Rep.-elect George Santos’ campaign filed with the Federal Election Commission show 37 expenditures, on office supplies, hotels, ride-share app Uber, restaurants and more, for the exact same amount: $199.99.
Campaign finance experts say those expenditures the New York representative-elect reported stood out for a key reason: They are one penny below the dollar figure above which the FEC requires campaigns to keep receipts.
Those expenditures are among a number of oddities contained in the FEC reports of Santos, the Republican who won a seat in Congress in November and in recent days has faced scrutiny over a series of false claims about his family history, work history, education and more.
The expenditures, and particularly the $199.99 payments to Uber, Walgreens, Walmart, Best Buy, Delta Airlines, Il Bacco Restaurante and more, “definitely stood out to me,” said campaign finance expert Paul S. Ryan, the deputy executive director of the Funders’ Committee for Civic Participation.
He said the payments could reflect an effort to skirt FEC requirements for campaigns to keep receipts for expenditures over $200. The FEC encourages candidates to keep receipts below that threshold, but only mandates them for payments over $200.
However, Ryan said, the consistent appearance of $199.99 charges effectively shows that Santos knew about the threshold he was attempting to skirt – potentially inviting Justice Department scrutiny and criminal penalties.
“My view is a bunch of expenditures right below legal requirement for the committee to keep receipts is evidence that he knew what he was doing,” Ryan said. “If in fact he did misuse campaign funds, this was a blatant effort to evade detection.”
The Office of Congressional Ethics and Jack Mandel’s alleged deception about the Congressman-elect Jerry Santos: Comments on a CNN interview
If he had to do over, Jack Mandel said he wouldn’t vote for Santos again as he believed he was a kind and fresh face.
“The whole person that he created and the ability to deceive us is just so troubling,” she said. We all know he shouldn’t be in office. I want to assure you the Republicans know it too.”
Tom Zmich, a former congressional candidate in the neighboring 6th District, said Santos is a friend of his and “hasn’t done anything wrong, as far as legality wise.”
CNN spoke with a person requesting anonymity who said he has been in touch with the representative-elect, and has shared text messages from December 22 in which he claims he is in touch with the Office of Congressional Ethics.
Although the donor initially “sensed” that Santos came across as an “embellisher,” the donor believed that Santos’ “heart was in the right place.” Santos allegedly told this donor that he worked at Goldman Sachs and would “always talk about the big deals he’d done.”
The OCE was reached out to by CNN. The office investigates complaints from the public and could refer the matter to the House Ethics Committee – potentially the first step toward a congressional investigation of Santos.
The campaign donor, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, told CNN on Friday that she feels betrayed and lied to after the news about the congressman-elect’s alleged deception.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee: Zeroing in on New York Republicans by taking campaign money from George Santos and his fellow democrats
According to an FEC review of Santos filings, his campaign committee “has no debts from the previous election cycle and has accepted contributions and/or made expenditures in support of your 2024 candidacy in excess of $5,000, thus meeting the definition of ‘candidate’ per Federal Election Campaign Laws.”
This week, the FEC sent yet another such letter, ordering the campaign to fix the statement of organization that listed Olson as the new treasurer, because the paperwork incorrectly described Santos’ campaign committee as a national Republican Party committee. The campaign has made a correction.
The FEC requires any individual who has raised or spent more than $5,000 in a campaign for federal office to register as a candidate within 15 days of reaching that threshold. Every electoral cycle, a statement of candidacy is required for any such candidate, including incumbentSantos.
The House Democrats’ campaign arm is launching a new effort to link vulnerable New York Republicans to Rep. George Santos, with Democrats betting that the freshman congressman will be a major liability for the GOP in key swing districts next year.
Beginning on Monday, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is rolling out a five-figure billboard campaign targeting five freshman Republicans who took donations from Santos: New York Reps. Nick LaLota, Anthony D’Esposito, Mike Lawler, Marc Molinaro and Brandon Williams, all of whom helped Republicans win a narrow majority last fall by winning seats that President Joe Biden had carried.
Molinaro and D’Esposito both returned the money from Santos after a number of his financial issues came to light, but the billboards in their districts ask why the lawmakers took campaign cash from “a fraudster” in the first place. The other three billboards, which feature a picture of Santos and the lawmaker, ask whether the members will return the campaign donations.
The DCCC isn’t alone in zeroing in on New York. The House Majority political action committee made a donation of $45 million last week to help Democrats regain the majority in the House in the year 2024.
The Campaign to Save George Santos: The New Campaign Treasurer of the Nassau County, New York, Senate District 228, and the Report filed with the Federal Election Commission
More than a week after embattled Rep. George Santos named his new campaign treasurer, questions persist over the identity of the person who has filled that role and the campaign’s filings with federal regulators.
Andrew Olson, listed as treasurer of Santos’ federal political committees on February 21, does not serve as treasurer for any federal committees beyond those associated with the Republican congressman who represents parts of Nassau County, New York. And election officials in New York say no one with that name is registered as treasurer of any political committee in the state. The address associated with Olson and Santos’ campaign is that of a mixed-use apartment and commercial building in Elmhurst, New York, where the congressman’s sister resided until earlier this year.
On Capitol Hill on Wednesday, he did not answer any questions about his treasurer. The email address provided for by the Federal Election Commission has gone unanswered. The lawyer forSantos has not responded to inquiries.
On January 31, Marks informed the FEC that she had resigned. Later that day, a note on the Santos filing stated that it was filed based upon the limited information provided to the campaign from the previous treasurer Nancy Marks.
But Saurav Ghosh, a former FEC enforcement lawyer who now works with the Campaign Legal Center watchdog group, said the initial report “reflects a complete lack of sophistication and lack of diligence with the details about what they are filing.”
The FEC asked the campaign many questions and the public asked them many questions, because the campaign never did any decent job of filing accurate and complete statements.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/02/politics/george-santos-campaign-treasurer/index.html
The Real Address of Tiffany Santos, the New York State Treasurer, and a Democratic Activist Clue to Andrew Olson
The address on Queens Boulevard in New York that the committee and his treasurer use is an apartment building that has been associated with Santos and his sister.
The congressman’s sister vacated her apartment in that building in January, court records show, and recently reached an agreement with her former landlord to repay more than $19,000 in back rent.
Employees at the Department of Labor, beauty salon and finance firm said they had no idea who Andrew Olson was. CNN was not able to access the floor, but the owner of the beauty salon said there were no other businesses or operating offices on the floor.
State election records show Tiffany Santos controls a New York-based political action committee, Rise NY PAC, that has described itself on social media as working to boost voter registration and enthusiasm. She was paid nearly $26,000 by the PAC during the 2022 election cycle, according to filings with the New York State Board of Elections.