George Santos, in May after testifying in federal court in Islip, New York. Seth Wenig (AP)
The House Ethics Committee has found “substantial evidence” of law violations by Republican Rep. George Santos of New York and forwarded its findings to the Justice Department. Santos, who has fled the lies he used on his resume since being elected in the November election, announced after learning of the ruling that he would not run for re-election in 2024.
The committee declared this Thursday that Santos’ conduct deserved public condemnation, was beneath the dignity of the office and had seriously discredited the House of Representatives. However, the defendant has always maintained his innocence and refused to resign despite the demands of many of his co-religionists, so he will remain in his seat for the remainder of the legislative period. According to the conclusions of the eight-month investigation, among other possible crimes, Santos knowingly caused his campaign committee to submit false or incomplete reports to the Federal Election Commission.
Pressure is mounting on the newcomer from New York, who was elected in midterm elections in which Republicans overtook Democrats in the state by taking four traditionally blue seats and helped put his party in control the chamber acquired. Two employees of his campaign team have already pleaded guilty to misconduct in the investigation against the representative in New York. In the case, in which Brooklyn federal prosecutors are investigating wire fraud and money laundering, the defendant faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
The bipartisan House committee report confirms the existence of “substantial evidence” that the lawmaker, who represents a district in Long Island and Queens, knowingly committed a series of ethics violations and possible crimes. Far from singing the mea culpa, Santos has resorted to a post while those who also have shortcomings stone me (…) I will continue to serve my constituents as long as I am allowed. However, I will NOT be running for a second term in 2024 as my family deserves better than being constantly in the press spotlight.”
In addition to knowingly submitting false or incomplete reports to the Federal Election Commission, Santos also “used campaign funds for personal purposes and willfully violated the Government Ethics Act with respect to his financial reports submitted to the House of Representatives.” Aside from other lies that the committee believes are ethical what is reprehensible is the financial irregularities that led to its downfall. In a story that continued after his election, Santos appeared to have a comfortable financial situation, while in real life he shared a modest house in Queens with his mother and a few acquaintances. As the edifice of invention that he tried to portray as his life began to crumble, he was even accused of impersonating his constituents and using their credit cards. He also hid his sexual orientation and even married a woman, which earned him severe criticism from the LGTBIQ+ community.
But aside from the inflating of his academic and professional résumé – he never worked at Wall Street firms, he said – the untruth that contributed most to his downfall, at least among his voters, may have been his story Connecting family with the Holocaust. , who poses as a descendant of Ukrainian survivor refugees in Brazil, where his mother comes from. As journalist Andrew Silverstein, who conducted research for a report in the community of survivors of the Nazi genocide in the Santos district, showed, his maternal grandparents were born in Brazil before World War II and did not arrive in Latin America as refugees the Nazis. . Silverstein also easily refuted that Santos’ mother was not a 9/11 survivor since she was in Brazil on the day of the attacks.
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Although he has admitted to fabricating entire chapters of his biography, Santos has so far only temporarily left the two House committees to which he was appointed, after taking possession of their minutes in January. And he did it, he assured at the time, while the investigation into his controversial trail of lies, which had already been widely proven, continued. His announcement that he will not run for re-election means the end of his rocky political career.
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