Santos Supplies Scandals Galore

January 28, 2023

In the latest round of scandals to erupt from the new G.O.P.-controlled Congress, already disgraced U.S. Representative George Santos of New York is coming under fire for two new allegations. 

First, Mr. Santos is finding himself running afoul of the law when it comes to F.E.C. filings. Chief among these concerns includes the name of “Thomas Datwyler,” whom ABC News cited as being a “long time specialist in political campaign finances,” as Mr. Santos’ campaign treasurer. Mr. Datwyler immediately contacted a lawyer upon being questioned by reporters about this filing, who released a statement shortly thereafter stating “On Monday, we informed the Santos campaign that Mr. Datwyler would not be serving as treasurer.” Adding to this controversy is the fact that this was the day before the F.E.C. filing was made, thus raising questions about the legality of Mr. Datwyler’s signature on the campaign finance filing. Was it put there without Mr. Datwyler’s permission? 

This is not to mention other reporting done by ABC News, in which investigative journalists explored Santos campaign finances in further detail. Some immediate red flags were raised, such as when the reporters found a suspicious number of expenditures just under the $200.00 limit (If $200.00 or more are expended from a campaign, the campaign must record that expenditure information in-depth). Raising further questions was an amendment to an earlier report offered by the Santos campaign, indicating that over $700,000 were loaned to the campaign by Mr. Santos himself. The amendment now indicates that these loans were not personal loans made by Mr. Santos, potentially causing more legal headaches ahead for Mr. Santos and his campaign. 

Mr. Santos additionally has another ethical mess on his hands after a Facebook post from 2011 surfaced where he appeared to “heil Hitler” before proceeding to advocate for the murder of Jews and Black Americans. 

Mr. Santos had previously claimed to have Jewish heritage. Since then, genealogy reports have concretely said that he had no Jewish heritage. Mr. Santos passed off the claim as he said “Jew-ish”, rather than being explicitly Jewish. This Facebook post has come on the heels of other accusations, including that Mr. Santos flashed a white supremacist symbol on the House floor during the tumultuous election to determine the speaker of the House.

Mr. Santos joins a crowd of individuals in the House G.O.P. who are controversial, to say the least. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has claimed in the past that “Jewish space lasers” started California wildfires and is anti-vaccination, Lauren Boebert, and Paul Gosar (who posted a video of himself attacking Democratic U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a cartoon) all fall into this crowd of far-right misfits, but even Santos appears to be too much for these radicals to handle. They all refuse to associate with him. In addition, Mr. Santos’ own fellow representatives and those who worked to elect him have called for his resignation, but little has happened on attempts to oust Mr. Santos or force him to resign. 

Mr. Santos who was tapped to serve on both the Committee on Small Business and the Committee on Space, Science, and Technology, maintains the support of Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California and Republican Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik, who serves with Mr. Santos in the New York delegation, but even this support is entirely conditional. 

After all, Mr. Santos is undergoing a House Ethics Committee probe into numerous allegations that he broke campaign finance law, with Mr. McCarthy advocating for removing Mr. Santos “If for some way when we go through Ethics that he has broken the law.”

George Santos delivers his first floor speech, on Iran. C-SPAN / Public Domain

By Paul Wolfe