Rep. George Santos outside his office on Capitol Hill.Photo: Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images
Santos once wrote on Twitter that the 9/11 terrorist attacks “claimed [his] mother’s life,” and at other times has said his mother died of cancer following the attacks.
Santos' congressional campaign websitealso includes a reference to her death. “George’s mother was in her office in the South Tower on Sept. 11, 2001, when the horrific events of that day unfolded. She survived the tragic events on September 11th, but she passed away a few years later when she lost her battle to cancer,” the website reads.
But those claims have not been substantiated.RollingStonereports that no victim advocacy groups could identify his mother among those who entered a victims' compensation claim.
George Santos.Alejandra Villa Loarca/Newsday RM via Getty
Santos is currently under investigation after a growing number of lies on his resume began to surface in recent weeks, with new details about his family history, career path andpossible ties to a Russian oligarchemerging routinely.
Some of the mystery surrounding Santos' background — particularly when it comes to his finances — has already sparked investigations both at the federal and county level, with Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly calling the fabrications “nothing short of stunning.”
The veteran claimed to Patch that, once the fundraiser netted $3,000, Santos took the money and disappeared. The dog ultimately had to be euthanized, with the veteran resorting to panhandling to pay for her euthanasia and cremation, he told the outlet.
Santos — who has previously been evicted from an apartment, despite once falsely claiming he owned 13 properties — has also donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to his own campaign, with many campaign finance watchdogs questioning where those funds came from.
“The volume and timing of Santos’s dramatic increase in income and assets, the lack of a clear explanation of how he generated that income, his well-documented penchant for dishonesty, and the fact that he then used $705,000 from his sudden windfall to fund his subsequent congressional campaign strongly suggests that the rapid shift in Santos’s finances was not a mere coincidence, but a direct result of unknown persons directly and illegally giving him money to run for federal office,” the complaint claims.
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A growing chorus of lawmakers have called on the Republican to resign, but still others — like House SpeakerKevin McCarthy— have noted he was legally elected, and therefore should continue to serve.
source: people.com
