(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . George Santos serves up fresh batch of BS alongside official reelection bid [1] ['Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags', 'Showtags Popular_Tags'] Date: 2023-04-19 The Daily Beast has raised questions about Santos’ latest campaign finance filing. Namely, they’re asking how—and when—he managed to loan his campaign hundreds of thousands of dollars. According to the outlet, Santos made more than $700,000 in “questionable” loans to his campaign, but his recent filing changed the dates he made them, the amounts of the individual loans, and the total amount of the loans. The question at the heart of the questions about Santos’ finances is how he was able to loan his campaign so much money so quickly. In 2020, Santos reported earning $55,000, and held no assets. But he still loaned his campaign more than $80,000. The next year, Santos suddenly had more than $11 million in assets and was raking in $750,000 annually—a windfall he has attributed to branching off from his pseudo-brokerage employers and starting a pseudo-brokerage company of his own. Santos claims the money came from his personal funds—an explanation many campaign finance and legal experts find hard to believe, especially given his history of seemingly compulsive fabrications. But if he couldn’t afford to fund his campaign, then how did he do it? While the details of Santos’ loans are indeed puzzling, it’s not necessary to get into too much granular detail here. Suffice to say campaign finance experts are scratching their heads over the congressman’s latest report. “These kinds of calculations and debt discrepancies are going to be a big red flag for the FEC’s reports and analysis division,” said Brendan Fischer, a campaign finance expert at Documented, a watchdog organization. “I’d expect them to ask Santos why these reports don’t make any sense.” Meanwhile, Santos’ campaign apparently changed the amounts of the personal loans and the dates Santos made them. And according to experts, these competing “facts” simply can’t be reconciled. “If you take [the filing] at face value, that means Santos artificially inflated the amount of money in his campaign for months, then actually fulfilled that loan months and months later. So the dates and amounts of funding for his campaign were previously untrue, across several reports,” said Jordan Libowitz, the communications director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics. Ultimately, said Libowitz, the changes amount to “as big a red flag as we could see.” And just in case you don’t think this story is quite bizarre enough, the Santos campaign’s apparently conflicting reports were both signed by an individual named Andrew Olson—who may or may not actually exist. For one thing, according to the latest filing, the campaign has never paid Olson. For his part, Libowitz was more succinct: “We have yet to see anything that points in the direction of his existence,” he said. And in case you were wondering if Santos simply made him up, Fischer provides still more clarity. Noting that lying to the Federal Election Commission is a crime, Fischer says, “[I]t would be exceptionally stupid for George Santos to compound his legal troubles by forging another person’s name on his FEC report.” Well, that cinches it, then. He almost certainly forged another person’s name on his FEC report. After all, if there’s one thing you can definitely say about Santos, it’s that he’s exceptional. RELATED STORY: Our new data shows who might run to succeed Santos—and in every other district Another murky bit? According to the press release announcing Santos’ reelection bid, the New York congressman is a “first-generation American”—which, according to no less an authority than the Census Bureau, means he was born outside the U.S. Ah, but this little factoid couldn’t be so cut-and-dried, right? VICE: Santos, a famously unreliable narrator of his own past, has said that he was born in Sunnyside, Queens to parents who emigrated from Brazil, and a 2013 Brazilian court document describes him as a U.S. national. This isn’t, though, the first time that an official communication from his campaign has contradicted his story; late last year, a statement attributed to his lawyer referred to Santos as an immigrant. And as Patch reported, according to one former coworker, Santos has said he was born in Brazil. As VICE notes, the Constitution requires representatives to have been citizens for seven years before they can serve in Congress, so if he was actually born in Brazil, we’d need to know when (or if) he became a naturalized citizen. But that’s not all! VICE looked into the matter further and discovered that Santos’ campaign team was just as confused as Santos—and pretty much everyone else—about his origin story. Seeking clarity, and aware that an extensive review of Santos’ interminable public access show revealed his propensity for malapropisms, VICE News asked Santos’ campaign press team the following question: “In his statement announcing his re-election campaign, Representative Santos referred to himself as a ‘first-generation American.’ First-generation Americans are those who were born outside the United States and emigrated to the U.S. Is Representative Santos a first-generation American, and if not, why did he refer to himself as one?” The campaign’s response to that very direct question with a very specific definition of “first-generation American?” “Yes. He is a first generation American.” Later, after VICE pressed further, the campaign muddied the waters a bit more with a statement that began with, “Let’s be clear.” “Let’s be clear,” they wrote. “There are two possible meanings of the adjective ‘first generation’ according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. First generation can refer to a person born in the U.S. to immigrant parents or a naturalized American citizen. Both types of people are considered to be U.S. citizens.” Then the team further clarified: “Congressman Santos was born in New York to immigrant parents.” RELATED STORY: 'How could you work for somebody like that?': Meet George Santos' press secretary More from VICE: Naysa Woomer, a spokesperson for Santos’ congressional office, declined to comment on the Santos campaign’s apparent confusion over where the congressman was born and on whether he’s eligible to serve in Congress, saying, “Congressional offices do not comment on campaign matters.” (Woomer also did not answer a question about anti-vaccine legislation Santos is reportedly introducing called the Minaj Act, perhaps considering this a campaign matter.) Ah, yes, the Minaj Act. Can you abide just one more detour into this little kookaburra cul-de-sac? Santos’ latest goofball legislation—intended to limit the government’s ability to enact vaccine mandates—was presumably named after rapper Nicki Minaj, who in September 2021 tweeted this: “My cousin in Trinidad won’t get the vaccine cuz his friend got it & became impotent. His testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding. So just pray on it & make sure you’re comfortable with ur decision, not bullied” Nice. Way to take initiative, George. Marjorie Taylor Greene has been in office two years longer than you, and Jewish spacer lasers continue to menace our old-growth forests. Good to see you’re not sitting on your hands. Check out Aldous J. Pennyfarthing’s four-volume Trump-trashing compendium, including the finale, Goodbye, Asshat: 101 Farewell Letters to Donald Trump, at this link. Or, if you prefer a test drive, you can download the epilogue to Goodbye, Asshat for the low, low price of FREE. It's never too early to start talking about the House! Joining us on this week's edition of The Downballot is Inside Elections' Jacob Rubashkin, who offers his thoughts on the overall playing field and a wide range of key contests. Jacob explains why Lauren Boebert might have an easier time of it in her likely rematch, how some candidates have a "special sauce" that allows them to keep winning difficult districts, and why he thinks Mary Peltola is favored for re-election despite Alaska's persistent red lean. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/19/2164740/-George-Santos-announces-bid-for-reelection-serves-up-fresh-batch-of-BS Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/