George Santos has achieved what many young politicians in the USA dream of: his name regularly makes the headlines of major newspapers and TV stations. But the way the 34-year-old and his Republicans should be anything but like. More and more inconsistencies in the fabric of lies that Santos has built up about his election to the House of Representatives are coming to light. And even with the most recent reports, the imposter manages to cause more confusion than enlightenment.
The replacement of the chief financial officer of his political campaign caused a stir during the week: On Wednesday, Santos’ campaign informed the authorities in Washington that this position had been filled by Thomas Datwyler and would replace Nancy Marks. The problem was that Datwyler himself had already turned down the job. “We informed Santos’ campaign Monday that Mr. Datwyler would not be taking on the job as chief financial officer,” Datwyler’s attorney, Derek Ross, said in a statement. It appears there was a communication issue between Monday’s conversation and Wednesday’s filing of the paperwork, Ross said. It remains unclear whether Santos himself commissioned the replacement.
For Santos, his campaign, and five Santos-affiliated political fundraisers, who also named Datwyler as the new chief financial officer, the lack of a chief financial officer is the next debacle. The guidelines of the US authorities stipulate that a campaign may only spend money or collect donations if there is a chief financial officer. Only he may collect all financial contributions to the campaign and only the chief financial officer or a person authorized by him may approve expenses. It is not yet clear why Santos split with Nancy Marks. Marks was CFO of his campaign when Santos first ran for the House of Representatives, and both are also active together in one of Santos’ companies, according to the New York Times. Marks declined to comment on developments during the week. Santos’ attorney Joe Murray told the New York Times that he “didn’t have the answers to the questions.”
The confusion surrounding the new chief financial officer has meanwhile also called the Federal Election Commission (FEC) onto the scene, which, as a federal authority, regulates election campaign financing. On Thursday, the FEC sent a letter to Santos and Datwyler asking for clarification. “The FEC noticed that the information on the ‘Treasurer Information’ was not filled out truthfully, correctly or completely,” the letter says right at the beginning. The complete documents must now be submitted by the beginning of March, otherwise Santos faces further trouble. “Anyone who knowingly and intentionally provides false, fictitious or fraudulent information to a US authority” faces criminal charges, the FEC explains in the letter.
Datwyler’s attorney, Derek Ross, is trying to clear things up for his client. He is in close contact with the FEC, there was “a miscommunication or something else,” Ross told “CNBC” on Friday. He is not in exchange with Santos or his election campaign because it seems like a waste of time to him. “If you know who’s running this anyway and you can get hold of them, let me know,” Ross said.
George Santos has come under heavy criticism since mid-December. The 34-year-old surprisingly won the mandate for New York’s electoral district 03 in November and moved into the House of Representatives for the Republicans. In retrospect, however, it turned out that Santos had heavily embellished his CV. The information about studying at two New York universities was a lie, as was employment at the two Wall Street companies Goldman Sachs and the Citi Group. Although Santos has now admitted many of the lies, new inconsistencies keep popping up: Most recently, the financing of the election campaign, to which Santos allegedly contributed $705,000 from his own pocket, came into focus.
Despite this, Kevin McCarthy, Republican caucus leader and speaker in the House of Representatives, remains committed to Santos. But even this support seems to be crumbling. McCarthy wants to await the outcome of a possible investigation by the House Ethics Committee. If the investigation finds that “George Santos broke the law, then he must go,” McCarthy said. Until then, the presumption of innocence continues to apply. Losing Santos would be painful for McCarthy, whose Republicans have a razor-thin majority in Congress and are extremely divided among themselves. Because if Santos leaves office, there is no immediate successor from the ranks of the Republicans in sight. Instead, there would be new elections in the Santos electoral district and the possibility for the Democrats to win another seat.
Quellen: New York Times, Washington Post, CNBC, FEC
