The few days since George Santos was revealed to have most likely fabricated pretty much all of his life story have raised a lot of questions. Questions like: Did the incoming congressman lie about personal connections to anti-Jewish persecution during World War II and the Pulse shooting?
Santos, who has described himself as a nonobservant Jew and a Catholic, claimed during his campaign that he was the child of Brazilian immigrants and that his mother’s parents hailed from Ukraine before fleeing to Brazil via Belgium to escape anti-Jewish persecution. But the Forward suggests this might also be a lie, citing genealogy websites that show that Santos’s maternal grandparents were born in Brazil — with no evidence that they were Jewish. The report cites genealogy records that show Santos’s grandfather, Paulo Horta Devolder, was born in Brazil in 1918 and his grandmother, Rosalina Caruso Horta, was born in 1927. Brazilian immigration documents from the 1930s and 1940s do not have any record of the pair. Neither grandparent was documented in records of Jewish refugees from Europe kept by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and Yad Vashem, Israel’s memorial to the Holocaust.
And now the Daily Beast is casting doubt on another aspect of Santos’ past: his marital history. The outlet reports that Santos, who has identified as being openly gay, got divorced from a woman in September 2019, just months before running his first congressional campaign. Though the past marriage isn’t necessarily at odds with his sexuality, Santos has never acknowledged the relationship. The congressman-elect’s biography says he lives with his husband Matt and their four dogs, but the Daily Beast notes that it couldn’t find a marriage record.
These apparent falsehoods add to an impressive list as first reported by the New York Times: That Santos never worked at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs despite claiming employment at the Wall Street firms; that he went to Baruch College and New York University despite no record from the schools of his attendance; and that he lost four employees at the Pulse shooting in 2016 despite no record of the victims working for him.
Calls for Santos to be investigated and to resign have grown in the hours since the Times report. Robert Zimmerman, Santos’s Democratic opponent, said that Santos “flat-out lied” to voters in the state’s Third Congressional District.
“He’s violated the public trust in order to win office and does not deserve to represent Long Island and Queens,” Zimmerman said in a statement. “Santos’s failure to answer any of the questions about these allegations demonstrates why he is unfit for public office and should resign.”
Dan Goldman, an incoming congressman and former federal prosecutor, said in a statement that it’s possible Santos could be guilty of two federal crimes: conspiracy to defraud the United States and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission. He pointed to the past fraud conviction against Santos in Brazil, as reported by the Times, as an example of the “urgent need” to investigate his actions. “I therefore urge the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the FBI to initiate an investigation into Santos’s apparent campaign lies,” Goldman said.
Hakeem Jeffries, the newly elected leader of the House Democrats, said during a DCCC news event Wednesday that Santos “appears to be a complete and utter fraud” and needs to answer to the voters of his district. “Right now, George Santos appears to be in the Witness Protection Program. No one can find him,” Jeffries said. “He’s hiding from legitimate questions that his constituents are asking about his education, about his so-called charity, about his work experience, about his criminal entanglement in Brazil, about every aspect, it appears, of his life.”
Meanwhile, the talented congressman-elect has yet to address the many questions over his record, save for a defensive statement from his attorney that claims the accusations are defamatory — while citing a quote falsely attributed to Winston Churchill. But on Thursday, Santos went on Twitter to assure people that he will answer the questions that people have… next week.
