N.Y. lawmakers call for House ethics probe of George Santos
©2023 The New York Times
Reps. Daniel Goldman and Ritchie Torres, both D-N.Y., filed an official complaint Tuesday asking the House Committee on Ethics to investigate Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., who admitted to lying about his background after a report last month in The New York Times.
The congressmen requested that the House committee explore whether Santos, a first-year lawmaker representing parts of Long Island and Queens, broke the law when he filed his required financial disclosures late and without key details about his finances.
“Congressman Torres and I feel it’s incredibly important to make sure that the integrity of the House and the integrity of its members are put front, first and foremost,” said Goldman, a former federal prosecutor who represents parts of lower Manhattan and Brooklyn.
The complaint by Goldman and Torres, made just days after Santos took his oath of office, adds significant pressure to a novice lawmaker already surrounded by controversy and facing calls to resign.
Santos entered Congress last week dogged by scrutiny from fellow lawmakers and the public alike after the Times uncovered inconsistencies in his background, found omissions in his financial disclosures and raised questions about his campaign expenses.
Federal and local prosecutors have said that they are looking into whether Santos committed any crimes involving his finances or his lies on the campaign trail.
On Monday, the Campaign Legal Center, a watchdog group, filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission accusing Santos of improperly using campaign money for personal expenses, misrepresenting his spending and hiding the true sources of his campaign funding.
In interviews with select news media outlets, Santos has acknowledged lying to voters about his educational and professional history, though he has admitted only to “embellishing” his resume. His lawyer, Joe Murray, has said in a statement that the campaign’s spending did not break any campaign finance laws.
But Santos has not addressed the paucity of information on financial disclosure forms he filed with the House clerk during his campaign. Although candidates are required to file their forms by May 15 of an election year, Santos did not submit his until September.
In his disclosure, Santos reported that his company, the Devolder Organization, paid him a $750,000 salary and provided dividends totaling somewhere from $1 million to $5 million. But he did not offer details about his company’s clients who might have helped him earn such a large sum, an apparent violation of a requirement to disclose any compensation in excess of $5,000 from a single source.
Santos, the son of Brazilian immigrants, also reported owning an apartment in Rio de Janeiro valued at as much as $1 million. But he told The New York Post last month that he did not own any properties, and he has not provided more details about the property in Brazil.