Democratic New York Congress Members Dan Goldman (Manhattan, Brooklyn) and Ritchie Torres (Bronx) filed an official complaint with the House Ethics Committee Tuesday requesting it investigate their Republican colleague George Santos, who admitted to fabricating much of his résumé last year.
Goldman and Torres — both frequent critics of Santos, since his many deceptions were revealed in an investigative bombshell report in late December — are requesting that the committee look into Santos’ questionable campaign finance practices. They allege he broke the Ethics in Government Act in submitting his financial filings late and without key pieces of information, according to a release.
“The House of Representatives has an obligation to police itself, and this is just the start of our mission to hold George Santos accountable to his constituents and the American people,” Goldman said, in a statement.
The House ethics investigation request comes on the heels of the Campaign Legal Center — a nonprofit focused on campaign finance matters — filing its own complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) Monday about Santos’ financial practices during both of his Congressional runs.
Late last year, Santos admitted to making up — or “embellishing” as he put it — large swaths of his personal backstory. Those falsehoods included him graduating from Baruch College, attending New York University, owning a large portfolio of property and being Jewish.
But, Goldman said, it is Santos’ shady campaign finance filings, during his two successive runs for Congress in 2020 and 2022, that call for a House Ethics Committee probe.
Congress Member Santos “has admitted that he didn’t graduate college, didn’t work on Wall Street or in private equity, doesn’t own property, and isn’t Jewish — all of which he asserted in order to dupe the voters in Queens and Nassau County,” Goldman said. “But most importantly, there are a number of deeply concerning lies Mr. Santos has told about his finances that have since led to multiple criminal and civil investigations.”
Both local and federal prosecutors have launched investigations into any potential crimes Santos may have committed on the campaign trail.
The two Congress Members personally delivered a copy of the complaint to Santos’ Washington D.C. office in the Longworth House Office Building Tuesday morning. Santos himself, however, wasn’t there at the time, according to a spokesperson for Goldman.
Torres pointed to the millions of dollars Santos claimed to have gleaned from the clients of his company the Devolder Organization, while not disclosing the identities of those clients. Santos’ $750,000 yearly Devolder salary appears to have, in large part, funded a $705,000 loan he gave his successful 2022 Congressional campaign.
“Santos claims to have earned millions of dollars from the clients he served, yet he failed to disclose the names of those clients, in violation of federal law,” Torres said. “The material omissions and misrepresentations on his financial disclosure, as well as the questions surrounding both his personal and campaign finances, are grounds for a House Ethics Investigation.”
Santos’ office, in an emailed statement to amNewYork Metro, declined to comment on the ethics complaint.
“The official office of Congressman George Santos does not comment on campaign matters,” they said.
Since his arrival in Washington, Santos has repeatedly ducked reporters trying to ask him about the scandal.
George Santos spent another day dodging questions on Capitol Hill as he’s accused of fabricating almost every single part of his life. pic.twitter.com/gNPnJ4x3aO
— Rachel Scott (@rachelvscott) January 9, 2023
