The biography of newly elected Congress member George Santos appeared fairly spectacular. The 34-year-old son of immigrants had graduated from Baruch College, a public school in New York, earlier than occurring to work at corporations like Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. Santos ultimately grew to become a profitable financier who began an animal rescue charity. The downside is that biography was apparently a lie. As revealed in the New York Times on Monday, it wasn’t simply that Santos exaggerated his résumé, he had allegedly invented it out of complete fabric.
The Times discovered that he apparently didn’t graduate from Baruch College, he didn’t work for Goldman Sachs or Citigroup, there have been no data of him being a profitable financier, nor have been there of him registering his animal rescue charity. The Times additionally discovered that he had been charged with test fraud in Brazil.
Further, various retailers have discovered no proof of Santos’s repeated claims to be Jewish, to have Jewish heritage, or to be descended from refugees fleeing the Holocaust.
Santos has indirectly denied any of the allegations. Instead, in an announcement on Monday, which additionally included a quote wrongly attributed to Winston Churchill, his lawyer mentioned, “It is no surprise that Congressman-elect Santos has enemies at the New York Times who are attempting to smear his good name with these defamatory allegations.” On Thursday, Santos adopted up on Twitter, promising “To the people of #NY03 I have my story to tell and it will be told next week.”
The story has sparked one of many more unusual political scandals in American historical past. Members of Congress have dedicated homicide in workplace. In reality, a member of Congress has even killed one other member of Congress. Even within the current day, we’ve seen each scandal below the solar, from Anthony Weiner tweeting a lewd image of himself, to Marjorie Taylor Greene’s notorious Facebook put up about Jewish house lasers. But it’s exhausting to think about a precedent for a scandal like this.
Who is George Santos?
There are some issues we learn about Santos. The brazenly homosexual son of Brazilian immigrants, he was elected in November to an open congressional seat that features a skinny slice of Queens and far of the North Shore of Long Island in Nassau County. Santos defeated Democrat Robert Zimmerman by a margin of 54 % to 46 %. This represented a serious swing from 2020 when Biden had received the district by the identical margin. That yr, Santos ran towards incumbent Tom Suozzi in an identical district and misplaced handily by a margin of 56 % to 43.5 %.
The representative-elect can be a serious Trump supporter — a lot in order that he was at Trump’s Ellipse rally on January 6, 2021, and has repeatedly falsely claimed that the previous president received the 2020 election.
Also, for all his alleged mendacity about his résumé, it’s clear that one firm Santos labored at, Harbor City Capital, has been accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of being a Ponzi scheme. As for Santos’s different employment, he did spend a stint as a Portuguese language customer support agent for DISH Network a decade in the past.
What don’t we all know?
We don’t know loads. This ranges from fundamental details about Santos’s biography to particulars about his dealings with the Brazilian felony justice system, and every part in between, together with the place he really lives.
But most significantly, we don’t know the place Santos’s cash comes from. The Representative-elect loaned his personal marketing campaign $700,000 through the 2022 cycle and claimed an revenue of $750,000. He additionally listed tens of millions of {dollars} in belongings together with an residence in Rio De Janeiro price as much as $1 million and a seven-figure financial savings account. It’s a serious shift in fortune for somebody who was evicted twice, in 2015 and 2017, for failing to pay lease and had been taken to courtroom for not paying money owed. Even in 2020, he reported revenue in just one class — compensation in extra of $5,000 paid by one supply — with no different belongings.
What occurs now?
Dan Goldman, a fellow representative-elect from New York and a former prosecutor, has urged that Santos face felony investigation for conspiracy to defraud the United States in addition to submitting false statements to the Federal Election Commission.
In an interview with Vox, Goldman shied away from weighing in on whether or not Santos must be denied his seat in Congress. “I think the bigger question is not whether I think George Santos should be a member of Congress. The bigger question is whether Kevin McCarthy and the Republican leadership think that George Santos should be a member of Congress.”
However, as of now, McCarthy wants Santos nearly as a lot as Santos wants McCarthy. The Republican chief is going through a revolt amongst hard-right Republicans against him changing into speaker of the House in January. With the slim incoming GOP majority, it means McCarthy can solely danger a handful of defections for a place that requires a majority vote of your complete House. Shortly earlier than the Times’s story was printed, Santos endorsed McCarthy on Twitter.
Further, as a result of Santos represents some of the Democratic seats in Congress held by a Republican, forcing him to resign below any circumstance is dangerous. It could be a tough seat for a Republican to carry in a particular election and a loss would additional imperil an already slim GOP majority.
In the meantime, it’s a matter of ready for the following shoe to drop. The workplace of New York Attorney General Letitia James is already “looking into some of the issues that have come out.” As unsustainable as the present established order might sound, the one impetus proper now for Santos to resign could be a way of disgrace, and it appears unlikely that he carries that burden.
Update, December 23, 10:20 am: This story was initially printed on December 21 and has been up to date as extra particulars have been reported about Santos’s background.
