New trouble for George Santos
George Santos may have been sworn in, but he’d better be prepared for the investigations to continue. It doesn’t help that while on the floor, the liar flashed the white supremacist sign. What a loser. So much for him really being Jewish. What Jewish person in his or her right mind would side with white supremacists? But Santos is not in his right mind. From the lies to the mystery money he used to finance his campaign, Santos is about to begin answering some tough questions. Not only is the Nassau County, NY, district attorney’s office looking into Santos, but Washington Post reported that a complaint has been filed against Santos with the Federal Election Commission.
The complaint filed by the Campaign Legal Center (“CLC”) focuses on Santos’s finances. The funny thing is that Santos’s other lies have set him up for this complaint. The complaint argues that because of all his lies, Santos is likely lying about money, which is not a far-off assumption. Palmer Report shared earlier that prior to running for office, Santos earned approximately $55,000 per year, yet he found $700,000 to loan to his campaign. He would have had to save every penny of his salary for several years to come up with that type of money, and we know that, realistically, he didn’t do that.
Santos claims to have earned millions since he reported the $55,000 salary in his last run for Congress, which is ridiculous on its face. CLC, again focusing on his lies, call the claim “vague, uncorroborated, and non-credible…” Just like the “boy who cried wolf,” Santos’s lies are coming back to haunt him. Even worse than that, Santos had an unusual number of reimbursements under $200, the threshold for requiring receipts, invoices, or canceled checks. In fact, there were 37 out of 40 disbursements of exactly $199.99. Coincidence? Hardly. CLC didn’t believe it either, so they dug a bit deeper.
CLC looked at one expense that alleged Santos had a hotel stay at a West South Beach Miami hotel that cost $199.99. CLC found that the least expensive room for a weeknight stay at the same hotel is $700. It is doubtful that this hotel reduced its rate by over $500 for Santos. Exacerbating that expense, Santos also claimed $199.99 for dinner and drinks at an Italian restaurant in Queens. CLC said: “This almost certainly is not an accurate accounting of the campaign’s expenses and suggests instead that the payments were either falsely reported or structured to avoid crossing the $200 mark.” It all certainly smells fishy, and if it smells, then rotten fish is not far away.
According to WaPo, the federal regulator previously found discrepancies in Santos’s campaign filings and requested clarification on 20+ expenses, some of which Santos’s campaign has modified and some of which it has chosen to ignore. He may not be able to hide for much longer, as the FEC has requested a response to the complaint by February 8. Santos had better get busy finding the answers the FEC seeks or he could be looking at something more serious than the backlash he currently faces.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years