While Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., has been making headlines for lying about his past, he’s also been attracting legal scrutiny for his financial irregularities.
A former staffer gave a tell-all interview with Talking Points Memo… and he stirred speculation about possible violations of campaign finance law.
“Lying on your resume is one thing,” the former staffer told TPM anonymouysly. “But I think George is going to be perp walked out of a building because of this financial mess.”
The ex-staffer told TPM about the campaign’s possible use of campaign funds for “personal spending” on “weird, weird things.”
In particular, the staffer took issue with the campaign’s frequent stops at an Italian restaurant in Queens, New York.
“I don’t know why we were at Il Bacco all the time,” the staffer said, referring to the restaurant with $14 salads. “It didn’t seem like we needed to be doing that.”
The staffer suspected some irregularities from the beginning. “I thought that the lack of a financial disclosure, the messiness of the books, and the reporting were not great,” the staffer said. “I got nervous and I got defensive that things were not on the up and up. I felt like things were not right.”
He also accused the campaign of keeping him in the dark. “I could never get an answer or even just a weekly report of what’s our cash in and cash out,” the staffer said, referring to his unproductive conversations with the campaign treasurer. “Who are we spending money with?”
It gets worse. The staffer accused a former co-worker of by posing as a high-level aide to House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy… in order to solicit money from donors.
“Campaign staffer Sam Miele… misrepresented himself as chief of staff to Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) while raising cash for Santos from deep-pocketed Republican donors, according to a report from CNBC that was confirmed by the operative TPM spoke with,” TPM reported.
Santos is being investigated for check fraud in Brazil, on top of the looming investigation over campaign finance.
He also appears to have lied about his heritage, his education, his work history, the circumstances of his mother’s death, and much more.
At one point, Santos had committed to remaining in office despite his many scandals. “I will NOT resign,” he tweeted earlier this week.
However, Santos has since backpedaled. On Thursday, the congressman cryptically told NBC News, “If 142 people ask for me to resign, I will resign.”
Santos reportedly clarified on a podcast that he meant to say 142,000, the total number of votes for him in November’s election. He said that he’d hang on “until those same 142,000 people tell me they don’t want me.”
But if the staffer is correct, then Santos may be leaving Congress sooner than that… and not by choice.
The Horn editorial team