George Santos, the New York Republican elected to Congress in November, is facing more allegations of major discrepancies in his resume.
An article published by the New York Times previously revealed that his claims of his employment and education history couldn’t be substantiated.
This is Santos’ second run after losing to Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi in 2020. He brought Republicans to a narrow majority in the House after defeating Robert Zimmerman in a newly drawn district encompassing parts of Queens and Long Island.
Santos painted himself as a “seasoned Wall Street financier and investor” who worked for multiple firms including Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. Both companies told the Times they found no record of his employment. Both Baruch College and New York University, where Santos claimed to have attended, could not find records of him ever being a student.
The incoming representative is also under fire for allegedly lying about his philanthropic work. During his campaign, he claimed to have founded an animal rescue charity called Friends of Pets United. The Times found no record of the group’s tax-exempt status. One source said the charity held a fundraiser in 2017, but that the beneficiary never received the funds.
Santos has removed references to Citigroup and Goldman Sachs and deleted details about his philanthropy work from his campaign website.
In the wake of the scandalous accusations, Santos’ attorney, Joseph Murray, posted a statement to the representative-elect’s Twitter.
“George Santos represents the kind of progress that the Left is so threatened by – a gay, Latino, first-generation American and Republican who won a Biden district in overwhelming fashion by showing everyday voters that there is a better option than the broken promises and failed policies of the Democratic Party,” he wrote. “After four years in the public eye, and on the verge of being sworn in as a member of the Republican-led 118th Congress, the New York Times launches this shotgun blast of attacks.”
The statement called the piece “defamatory” and concluded with a quote: “You have enemies? Good. It means that you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”
Murray incorrectly attributed the quote to Winston Churchill.
Zimmerman told a Washington Post reporter that the story was “not a shock.”
“We always knew he was running a scam against the voters and we raised many of these issues but were drowned out in the gov’s race where crime was the focus and the media had other priorities,” Zimmerman said. “An investigation is merited because of the serious allegations of filing false information on his financial disclosure documents and… questions about his finances [and] where his funds came from.”
