Representative-elect George Santos avoided answering questions from the media for a week after The New York Times reported several significant falsehoods on his resume.
Now Mr. Santos has exchanged his silence for a new tactic: to give the impression of cleansing.
In three separate interviews - two with conservative media, none with The Times - Mr Santos admitted to "embellishing" his resume, even as he slammed the "elitist" institutions that sought to impeach him and insisted he was no more duplicitous than your average member of Congress.
“Did I embellish my CV? Yes, I did it," he told the New York political publication City and State. "And I'm sorry, and I shouldn't have been. And words can't 100 percent express how I feel, but I'm still the same man. I'm not a fraud. I'm not a cartoon. I'm not some mythical creature that's made up." Mr. Santos, a 34-year-old Republican, was elected in November by voters in New York's Third Congressional District, which includes parts of Nassau County and Queens. When he enters Congress in 2023, several important questions will still hang over him.
This is what we do and don't know about elected representatives.
Mr. Santos did not work where he promised.
During his two congressional campaigns, the first of which was unsuccessful, Mr. Santos cast himself as a savvy Wall Street veteran with experience at both Citigroup, where he said he was an "associate asset manager." and at Goldman Sachs. Both companies told The Times that they were not aware that Mr. Santos had ever worked for them.
In recent interviews, Mr. Santos claimed that he did not actually work for these companies, but rather with them, when he worked for a company called LinkBridge Investors, which claims to connect fund managers with investors.
Mr. Santos told The New York Post that he simply used "a bad choice of words."
Mr. Santos did not graduate from the schools he claimed he did.
Mr. Santos said he graduated from Baruch College in Manhattan with a bachelor's degree in economics and finance. A biography on the House Republican Campaign Committee website said he also attended N.Y.U. But neither college could find documents to support those claims, and in an interview with The Post, Mr. Santos admitted he had lied about his education.
"I didn't graduate from any college." he told the magazine. "I am embarrassed and sorry that I embellished my resume."
Mr. Santos says he is not a Jew, but a "Jew".
Mr. Santos said that his mother was born in Brazil to immigrants who "fled persecution of Jews in Ukraine, settled in Belgium and again fled persecution during World War II." And he identified as both a Catholic and a non-observant Jew.
However, both The Jewish Forward and CNN reported, citing genealogical records and Brazilian records, that Mr. Santos' grandparents appear to have been born in Brazil before World War II. Mr. Santos responded to these revelations
"I always joke, I'm Catholic, but I'm also Jewish — as in 'ishis,'" he told City and State. “I grew up fully aware that my grandparents were Jews, from a Jewish family and refugees in Brazil. And that's always been the story I grew up with and I've always been very familiar with it."
Mr. Santos changes the story about the Pulse nightclub shooting.
After winning the election, Mr. Santos, who is gay, claimed he "lost four employees" in the 2016 shooting at the Pulse gay club in Orlando, for which The Times could find no evidence.
In an interview on WABC radio, Mr. Santos said that the "four employees" did not actually work at his Florida company. Rather, they employed four people, he said.
"We lost four people who came to work for the company I'm starting in Orlando," he said.
Mr. Santos denied any wrongdoing.
Contrary to information found by The Times, Mr. Santos claimed he was never charged with fraud because he wrote checks in a stolen checkbook in Brazil.
"I'm not a criminal here — not here, not in Brazil, not in any jurisdiction in the world," he told The Post. "Absolutely not. It didn't happen."
In a radio interview with WABC, Mr. Santos offered documents to support his claim. But he refused to make the documents available to The Times.
Mr. Santos does not own 13 properties.
During his last congressional campaign, Mr. Santos presented himself and his family as owners of 13 properties. He also suggested that he was a harassed landlord whose tenants were unfairly withholding rent.
On Monday, he said that his family owns the property, but he does not.
“George Santos does not own real estate,” he told The Post.
The sources of Santos' $700,000 campaign loan remain unclear.
While Mr. Santos' adulthood was marked by unpaid debts to landlords and creditors, he borrowed $700,000 for his 2021 and 2022 congressional campaigns, according to federal campaign funds. Where the money came from remains unclear.
Mr. Santos continues to maintain that it began with his work at Devolder's organization, which he described as a city-state consulting firm.
Mr. Santos has disclosed little about his company's operations, and The Times found no assets or public assets associated with the company.
Rep. Rep. George Santos (R-NY), embroiled in allegations of widespread lying about every aspect of his background following a New York Times investigation, has now admitted to some of the lies but still plans to take office on January 3rd. nothing can be done to stop him.
KEY FACTS
Education: Santos admitted he did not graduate from any college, initially claiming to have graduated from Baruch College in 2010.
Career: During the 2022 campaign, he claimed to have worked for financial giants Citigroup and Goldman. , Sachs admits that's not true, and told The New York Post that his job as vice president at LinkBridge Investors allowed him to work with those companies, but not directly for them, blaming "a bad choice of words."
Criminal record: The New York Times reports that it found court documents in Brazil that show that when he was 19, he admitted to police that he wrote checks (including shoes) using a stolen checkbook, which Santos denies. told the NY Post, "I'm not a criminal here - not here, not in Brazil, not in any jurisdiction in the world."
Properties: Santos previously claimed to have 13 properties in his and his family's portfolio, but now admits that he personally does not own any properties.
Eviction: The Times reports Santos has had previous eviction cases against him and now says a judge has ordered him to pay more than $12,000 to a former landlord in Sunnyside, Queens, who he says he owes because he was a doctor. debt after his mother's battle with cancer.
His marriage to a woman: The Daily Beast reports that Santos, the first openly gay Republican to win a House seat, never disclosed his previous marriage to a woman during his campaign, although he now tells the NY Post that he is happily married . gay man masculine and satisfied with his sexuality.
Family background: His campaign website said his maternal grandparents were "Belgian immigrants who fled the ravages of World War II to Europe," although The Forward reports they were born in Brazil.
In a video interview with City and State, Santos told City and State that he had long heard the story of his grandparents who were Holocaust refugees, although he never claimed to be Jewish (he identifies as Catholic), and said that his maternal grandparents. 'Jewish heritage changed him "major of Jews".
His charity: Santos claimed he founded Friends of Pets United between 2013 and 2018 and claimed to have rescued more than 2,400 dogs and 280 cats, although The Times reported no IRS records were found and now says he mainly campaigns for a charitable organization. and help find foster homes for animals
TANGENT
The source of his finances is also being examined. Santos loaned his campaign $700,000 and reported a salary of more than $750,000, according to the Times. In the same City and State video interview, Santos claimed that his consulting firm, the Devolder Organization, started after he left his job at Harbor City Capital -- which the Securities and Exchange Commission claims was a Ponzi scheme -- and said, "I had relationships. and I started making a lot of money," without explaining more and confirming that the agency is better.
RESOLUTION
Despite admitting that he lied on several charges, Santos maintains that he only "embellished" his resume and assured his constituents that "this will not prevent me from being an effective member of the United States Congress."
Key critic
So far, several Democrats have called on Santos to resign from the House seat he won in November after misleading voters about his background, The Washington Post reports. Rep. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) tweeted that "GOP Congressman-elect George Santos, who has now admitted to his massive lies, should take" and called GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, who has not responded to the allegations, to call for Santos to be kicked out of the House. Other notable critics include House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and incoming House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).
KEY BACKGROUND
Republican Santos beat out Democratic Representative Robert Zimmerman for the Long Island-Queens congressional district back in November. Santos led with 54% while Zimmerman trailed behind with only 46% of the votes. Santos' victory helped Republicans regain control of the House by a narrow 222 to 213 margin. The House can only prevent candidates from holding office if they have been lying about their state residency, their age and citizenship, according to a Supreme Court case. Members can be removed after taking office for a mistake if two-thirds of MPs support the removal.
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