The dramatic political career of disgraced New York representative George Santos has finally come to an end. On December 1st, the House of Representatives voted 311-114 to expel Santos following a brutal report from the House Ethics Committee accusing the representative of defrauding donors and misappropriating public campaign funds.
According to nbcnews.com, the New York Representative’s expulsion from the House of Representatives marks the first such action since the Civil War. Santos is the only member to be removed for something other than a federal crime or being a part of the Confederacy. Santos is facing federal charges of wire fraud, money laundering, leaving public funds, and lying to Congress, to which Santos has pleaded not guilty.
Despite the charges being a dramatic twist in the Santos saga, it is certainly not surprising. Ever since December 2022 when the New York Times first exposed to the public that George Santos may not be the man the public knew him as, it has been difficult for the public to trust Santos when he speaks about his background. As Santos’s term in office finally comes to an end, here are the highlights of Congressman Santos’ most notorious lies.
Santos’ Misuse of Campaign Funds for Lavish Purchases
Federal prosecutors have charged Santos with defrauding his supporters while running for Congress during his election in 2022. Allegedly, Santos instructed a consultant to convince potential political donors to donate to Redstone Strategies, saying that the money would fund his election to the House. Two convinced donors gave $25,000 to the Santos-operated LLC (this was not a Super PAC). Allegedly, Santos laundered money out of the account into his account and used it for personal purchases unrelated to his 2022 election campaign.
According to the House Ethics Committee, Santos repeatedly covered his expenses with campaign funds without notifying campaign donors or the FEC. These expenses included “significant travel expenses for flights, hotels, Ubers, and meals.” One such purchase included one of $3,332 at an Airbnb while Santos was off at the Hamptons, reported CBS News on December 1st. Campaign investigators also discovered undisclosed purchases from Santos for Botox treatments – cosmetic treatments with no relation to Santos’ campaign. As reported by the Investigative Subcommittee of the Ethics Committee (ISC), Santos sent over a thousand dollars to an esthetician (a skincare professional) at a spa in New York. Also, the report found payments of $1,500 at Mirza Aesthetics and $1,400 at Virtual Skin Spa, both labeled Botox.
Furthermore, Santos spent campaign money on lavish luxury purchases such as those at Hermés, a French luxury designer store selling leather goods, handmade luggage, and handbags. Additionally, he spent campaign funds at Ferragamo, a designer shoe and handbag store. At these luxury stores, Santos spent $4,127 and $6,000 respectively. In addition to these lavish purchases, Santos also spent personal funds on lower-level purchases at adult content website OnlyFans, as well as at makeup store Sephora. In response to the aforementioned allegations, Santos has pleaded not guilty.
The Manipulation of the Genealogy and Family History of the Santos Family
In the past, Santos has repeatedly lied about his family members’ deaths. In July 2021, Santos stated on Twitter (now called X) that the attacks on 9/11 took his mother’s life. On Santos’ campaign website, he claims his mother “was in her office in the South Tower on September 11 and that she later passed away a few years later due to cancer.” Yet, on December 23rd, 2021, Santos claimed it was the fifth anniversary of his mother’s life – supported by her obituary. Although these statements contradict each other, there is no evidence that his mother suffered from the toxic debris that followed the 9/11 victims nor that she was at the World Trade Center on the day it was attacked. Washington Post reporter Andrew Silverman found documents stating that Santos’ mother was in Brazil without a visa to enter the U.S. on September 11th.
On a conservative podcast in May 2022, Santos claimed that his grandmother survived the Holocaust and his campaign bio stated that they fled persecution during World War 2. According to genealogist Megan Smolenyak who was interviewed by the New York Daily News, multiple family records show that his maternal relatives were born in Brazil and that their family name, Devolder, is common among Brazilian Catholic families. Santos reputed these statements on Fox News, “For a lot of people who are descendants of World War II refugees or survivors of the Holocaust, a lot of names and paperwork were changed in the name of survival,” Santos stated, claiming he had Ukrainian heritage on his mother’s side. He continued these lies, making such remarks on the House floor in January 2017 to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Aside from his Holocaust fabrications, Santos has claimed both Jewish and Catholic heritage as documented by a Vanity Fair article in January of 2023 (George Santos, Who Falsely Claimed His Grandparents Fled Hitler, Reportedly Joked About Killing “Jews and Blacks”). Over the years, Santos has stated that he is a Conservative Roman Catholic; a priest on Long Island claimed he knows Santos’ family and that they attend Catholic mass.
Moreover, despite his claim to a Jewish background, a 2011 Facebook post was recovered in which Santos wrote “hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh hiiiiiiiiiiiitlerrrrrrrrrrr.” Santos’ former roommate, Gregory Morey-Parker, spoke publicly about Santos and that he would frequently make anti-Semitic jokes, “He’d always say that it was okay for him to make those jokes because he was Jewish.” Director Blake Zeff also released audio of Santos doing a Jewish impression and stated that in private, Santos adopted a fake Yiddish accent to appeal to voters. Despite previously claiming to be Jewish, Santos argued he never had done so. Instead, he argued that he claimed to be “Jew-ish.”
George Santos’ Employment and Schooling History
The congressman repeatedly claims to be a profound businessman, and his campaign bio states he worked at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup – both famed companies on Wall Street. However, representatives from both companies reported to the New York Times that they have no records that state Santos was ever employed by them. Santos simply stated he worked in the real estate wing of Citigroup in the 2010s, yet the bank lost its real estate side before he graduated from high school.
Upon his inauguration into Congress, the New York Times obtained a copy of his full resume. Here he claimed he graduated in the top 1% of Baruch College in 2010, obtained an M.B.A. at NYU, and manned a project at Goldman Sachs that doubled its investment. According to the New York Post, As it turns out, this resume was completely fabricated. Santos claims he graduated from high school in 2008 from Horace Mann – to which the school stated they have no records of his attendance – and that he finished a 4-year economics and finance degree at Baruch College in 2 years. Simply put, Baruch College also stated that there is no record of Santos attending the public school, nor is there any record of him being a “star” on the volleyball team as he claims. Not surprisingly, New York University also stated to the New York Times that they too have no evidence or records to show Santos completed any higher schooling program at the university. Later, Santos admitted to the Times that he didn’t graduate from any tertiary education program.
The Swindling of a Homeless Veteran and his Cancer-Ridden Dog and Amish Dog Breeders
Perhaps the most dramatic and comically evil story of the Santos story is his thievery of a disabled veteran. As reported by New York Magazine, George Santos allegedly stole from Richard Osthoff in May 2016, a homeless and disabled veteran living in a tent in central New Jersey looking for a way to get enough money to save his pit mix – a cost of $3,000. A veterinary technician referred him to a certain Anthony Devolder Santos – George’s pseudonym – to help raise the funds. Santos organized a GoFundMe which went directly to his bank account. After GoFundMe received enough money to pay for the cancer-ridden dog’s surgery, the New York Patch confirmed Santos refused and continues to refuse to give Osthoff the money. Thus, Osthoff’s dog died a year later. Santos denies this story, yet the FBI is investigating the matter.
In addition, reports by Politico suggest that in late 2017, Santos’s name was on nine canceled checks to eight separate accounts owned by dog breeders. Under these checks, the memo states either: “puppy” or “puppies.” In November 2017, he was charged in Pennsylvania. He was charged with theft by deception, yet Santos continues to claim his checkbook was stolen.
Furthermore, under his charity Friends of Animals United, Santos would hold adoption events for dogs, selling the dogs to people thinking they were adopting a dog in need, not one from a breeder. Moreover, he states that this charity saved 2,500 dogs and cats from 2013 to 2018. Yet, as there are no social-media accounts nor IRS records, there is little evidence of the charity in any New York or New Jersey records where the charity was reportedly run. According to the Times, Santos would take written checks to his charity and cash them out to his pseudonym, Anthony Devolder.
Was Santos a Brazilian Drag Queen? A Brazilian Journalist?
George Santos, the first openly gay Republican in the House to win as a non-incumbent, is often criticized for the anti-trans and anti-drag show policies he has advocated for. Yet, as lies about Santos surfaced, members of his past have revealed details about his life – like Brazilian drag queen Eula Rochard. She states that she was friends with Santos in 2005 when he was a drag performer in 2005. According to Reuters, another friend came forward saying Santos hoped to be Miss Gay Rio de Janeiro and that he regularly participated in drag pageants under the name “Kitara.” Santos denied these claims on Twitter (now X) stating that they are categorically false. Yet, after receiving positive feedback on the event, the Republican stated, “I had fun at a festival. Sue me for having a life,” according to CNN.
Furthermore, in Brazil, the Congressman claimed to work for the Brazilian media giant Globo as a journalist. A former roommate in Brazil stated that he lived with Santos in 2013 and that he would just stay “at home all day on his computer, just browsing the web, probably chatting with people.” In response, Globo’s director-general of journalism stated that Santos’ claims were “a lie, pure and simple.”
Did Santos Perform on Broadway? Was he on the Disney Channel?
In 2022, Santos claimed to donors that he helped produce Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark, a 2011 rock musical revolving around Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man. If this fib was true, he’d be traveling on Broadway at the same time he attended Baruch College and was a volleyball star. Producers of the play deny Santos’ involvement in the play. Furthermore, one must question why Santos attempted to hitch his name to Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark specifically, as the show failed and lost millions of dollars because several of its actors suffered serious injuries resulting in several delays.
Furthermore, his resume states he landed roles on Disney Channel – including Hannah Montana and Suite Life of Zack & Cody. Furthermore, he states he finally hit the big screen in a movie called The Invasion starring Uma Thurman. Yet, Uma Thurman has never appeared in a movie holding such a name, and The Invasion was a 2007 movie that was released when Santos argued he was in high school attending Horace Mann.
How does Santos’ time in politics affect the future of the American political scene?
As Santos’s time in the sun finally ends, we see a man who built a career solely on dishonesty. With his expulsion, a trail of deceit, fraud, ethical violations, and federal charges of wire fraud, money laundering, and lying to Congress follows Santos out of the House of Representatives doors. It is an expulsion so shattering to the U.S. political scene that such an act has never occurred since the Civil War.
