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First Out Gay Republican to Win a US House Seat Appears to Have a Fraudulent Résumé: NYT

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George Santos, the first out gay non-incumbent Republican to win a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, calls himself the “full embodiment of the American dream,” but he appears to have a fraudulent résumé. The New York Times‘ Monday morning bombshell, however, includes some facts that have been previously reported, including in a press release published by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) in August, well before Election Day, that apparently was largely ignored.

Santos, endorsed by House GOP Caucus Chair, Rep. Elise Stefanik, also of New York, is a far-right MAGA Republican who will be sworn into office next month after winning a pivotal race for an open congressional seat.

According to the Times’ investigation,  Santos has made the following claims, none of which the paper of record could verify.

Santos, who defeated his Democratic rival who is also gay, claims four of his co-workers were killed during the horrific Pulse nightclub mass shooting terror attack. The Times reports its “review of news coverage and obituaries found that none of the 49 victims appear to have worked at the various firms named in his biography.”

NEW: Gay Republican Who Allegedly Lied About Much of His Background Responds to NY Times Bombshell by Blaming ‘The Left’

Santos claims he worked for both Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, but both Wall Street firms “told The Times they had no record of his ever working there.”

Santos claims he graduated from Baruch College in 2010, but officials “could find no record of anyone matching his name and date of birth graduating that year.” He also claims, on the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) website (archived), that he attended New York University, but “an N.Y.U. spokesman found no attendance records matching his name and birth date.”

The Times reports Santos even claimed he founded “an animal rescue charity that saved more than 2,500 dogs and cats,” but there is “little evidence that his animal rescue group, Friends of Pets United, was, as Mr. Santos claimed, a tax-exempt organization: The Internal Revenue Service could locate no record of a registered charity with that name.” Santos “cited the group as proof of a history of philanthropic work.”

The animal rescue group held one fundraiser, but “the event’s beneficiary, who asked for anonymity for fear of retribution, said that she never received any of the funds, with Mr. Santos only offering repeated excuses for not forwarding the money.”

Santos has a history of facing evictions for more that $12,000 in unpaid rent for two apartments between 2015 and 2017, but in 2021 he tweeted from a different perspective.

“Will we landlords ever be able to take back possession of our property? My family and I nearing a 1 year anniversary of not receiving rent on 13 properties!!! The state is collecting their tax, yet we get 0 help from the government. We worked hard to acquire these assets,” he claimed. “Now it almost feels like we are being punished. I hope that the my senate can see how much harm they are causing us. #landlordrights #EqualRights

READ MORE: Stefanik-Endorsed Candidate Called Black People ‘Dumb and Hungry,’ Said Trump Sexual Assault Accuser ‘Probably Enjoyed’ It

Santos also worked for Harbor City Capital, a Florida-based investment company that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against, “accusing the company and its founder of running a $17 million Ponzi scheme.” Santos was not named in the lawsuit.

That’s just part of the Times’ extensive reporting, reporting that could have been published before the election by the New York-based newspaper.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in August, months before the November election, warned New York voters about Santos.

While the DCCC focused on Santos’ more recent activities, it did report on what it called his “extreme views,” “shady personal finances and ponzi scheme ties,” and his alleged charity.

“Santos failed to file a Personal Financial Disclosure (PFD) for 2021 or 2022 – something he knows is required of a congressional candidate. It begs the question: what is Santos hiding?” the DCCC asked. “Santos failed to disclose any assets or money in his bank accounts on his 2020 PFD, yet loaned his campaign more than $80,000, and has continued to self-fund his 2022 campaign – including a self loan of half a million dollars in the first quarter of 2022.”

“On top of his shady personal finances and ponzi scheme ties,” the DCCC claimed, “Santos claimed he founded and ran a nonprofit animal rescue operation called Friends Of Pets United, but no such organization was found in the IRS’ database.”

The DCCC also highlighted Santos’ views on the January 6, 2021 insurrection.

“While Americans watched in horror as far-right extremists – inspired by the lie that Donald Trump won the 2020 election –  stormed the Capitol, issued death threats to elected officials, and injured more than 140 police officers in a deadly riot, George Santos praised the rioters. Santos, who has spread debunked lies about ‘rampant fraud’ in the 2020 presidential election, was at the Stop the Steal Rally on January 6th, and even claimed it ‘was the most amazing crowd and the President was at his full awesomeness that day.'”

It also warned that Santos is extremely anti-choice, and would support criminalizing abortion.

“Not only has Santos prided himself as being ‘unapologetically’ anti-choice, he has also admitted that he ‘would be in favor of’ criminalizing doctors who performed abortions, and that he believed rape victims needed to have ‘proven police documentation’ in order to receive an abortion.”

It wasn’t only the DCCC that warned voters about Santos.

READ MORE: Texas GOP Rep. Hires Christian Nationalist Who Wants to Execute Drag Show Attendees

In April, The Daily Beast reported Santos “served as regional director of accused scam firm Harbor City Capital, which allegedly misappropriated millions.”

The Beast, using his full name, Devolder-Santos, called him a “young, gay Republican born in New York City to Brazilian immigrants, congressional candidate,” saying he “has embraced a public image as a ‘walking, living, breathing contradiction.'”

“But the would-be successor to Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-New York) seems less eager to share another detail of his personal story: for all his rants against ‘the swamp,’ Devolder-Santos served as a director of an investment firm authorities say bilked millions of dollars from its customers.”

The Daily Beast also reported Santos has a company incorporated in Florida, “one of six stakeholders in Red Strategies USA, another firm founded in the Sunshine State that same month. Five of the six companies involved in Red Strategies belong to former Harbor City employees, including the ex-CFO; the last belongs to Devolder-Santos’s campaign treasurer.”

“Florida state records show Red Strategies as an active concern, and Federal Election Commission disclosures reveal the firm continued to receive payments from Tina Forte—a QAnon-friendly challenger to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—through the end of December 2021.”

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Marjorie Taylor Greene Says She’s ‘Done Supporting’ The GOP: ‘Party Betrays Its Voters’

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Former Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said on Monday that she is “done supporting” her former party—but don’t expect her to join the Democratic party anytime soon.

Greene announced her disillusionment with the GOP on Monday afternoon in a tweet.

“Tucker is not the only one who is done supporting the Republican Party. There is A LOT of us that are absolutely fed up and will not support a party that betrays its voters and country. That does not mean we are turning into Democrats either. But we are DONE with the America LAST Republican Party,” Greene wrote.

She referred to comments made last week by pundit Tucker Carlson. Carlson appeared on the Can’t Be Censored podcast Thursday, saying he would refrain from supporting either major party, and admitted “I’m not sure what I’m going to do.”

READ MORE: ‘Gaslight America’: Marjorie Taylor Greene Blasts Trump Ahead of His Trip to Georgia

“How could I or any American voter support a political party that’s not loyal to the United States. That puts the interests of a foreign country above those of its own citizens. It’s not possible to vote for people like that, and I’m not going to,” Carlson said, according to Mediaite, referring to America’s long-time ally Israel.

Greene famously broke with President Donald Trump earlier this year when she called for the release of the FBI files relating to disgraced financier and sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein. A former staunch ally of Trump, the two started trading barbs. Greene resigned from the House this January. Greene has long called for an isolationist foreign policy, criticizing America’s involvement in Ukraine as well as the current conflict with Iran.

Given that Greene said she has no plans on moving leftward in her politics, it’s unclear if she will refrain from voting or if she’ll throw her lot in with a third party. While American politics are primarily driven by the two major parties, a number of smaller parties also exist.

Greene may find a home in the Libertarian party, the third-largest party by voter registration. The Libertarian party has drifted rightward since its founding in 1971. While initially economically conservative but politically liberal, after 2022, the paleolibertarian Mises Caucus gained control of the party. Paleolibertarianism was developed by anarcho-capitalists, and embraces cultural conservatism. Some of the most widely known paleolibertarians include former Representative Ron Paul and the current president of Argentina, Javier Milei.

Third parties struggle to gain traction in the United States. The closest a third party has come to widespread support was the Reform Party, founded by H. Ross Perot during the 1996 presidential election after he won 18.9% of the popular vote in the 1992 presidential election as an independent candidate. Reform won 8.4% of the popular vote in the 1996 election, but no third-party or independent candidate has been as successful as Perot since.

However, the electoral college makes it difficult for a third-party presidential candidate to be elected at all. Third-party presidential candidates are often seen as spoilers for the major candidates. Perot is often believed to have won votes away from President George H.W. Bush in 1992, giving the election to President Bill Clinton. In 2000, Green Party candidate Ralph Nader was similarly accused of acting as a spoiler for Vice President Al Gore, leading to the election of President George W. Bush.

Third parties, however, have a better track record in down-ballot races. For example, Kshama Sawant won election to the Seattle City Council in 2014 as a member of the Socialist Alternative party. She held office until 2024, when she declined to seek reelection. She is currently running for a seat in the House of Representatives as an independent.

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Donald Trump Says Iran ‘Will Agree to Major Weapons Inspections’ to Ensure ‘Nuclear Honesty’

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President Donald Trump announced on Monday that Iran “will agree” to allow weapon inspectors into the country in a slightly confusing social media post.

“Everybody is fully aware that Iran will agree to have Major Weapons Inspections in order to ensure ‘Nuclear Honesty’ long into the future,” the president wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

Vice President JD Vance has been handling the negotiations with Iran to end the military conflict started by the United States and Israel at the end of February. Vance said earlier today that inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency would be allowed to enter Iran. The inspectors could be in the country as soon as Monday, according to the Washington Post.

READ MORE: Large Majority of Americans Say Iran Conflict Should End, Hasn’t Met Any of Trump’s Goals

Trump’s wording, however, is somewhat hard to parse. When he says “everyone is fully aware,” is Trump referring to Vance’s Monday announcement that had been widely reported? Or is Trump attempting to cast doubt, suggesting Iran may somehow be pulling a fast one, allowing inspections to provide cover for a weapons program?

Either way, the allowing of weapons inspectors into Iran is similar to what former President Barack Obama’s administration negotiated for in 2015. The Obama-era deal called for IAEA inspectors to make sure Iran was complying with the deal, and was not developing nuclear weapons. But in 2018, after Trump ended the agreement, Iran started to block IAEA inspectors from parts of their nuclear program. Since then, IAEA inspectors do not know the status of Iran’s enriched uranium, according to the Washington Post.

One year ago from Monday, the U.S. struck Iranian sites believed to hold stockpiles of enriched uranium. Since then, Trump has claimed that the strike “completely and totally obliterated” the country’s nuclear enrichment facilities, however, this has never been verified. Even at the time, the Pentagon said that Iran’s nuclear program had only been “degraded…by two years.” Trump’s national intelligence director testified prior to the strike that there was no evidence that Iran’s existing nuclear program was meant to build weapons, according to the Military Times.

Iran has long promised not to build or obtain nuclear weapons. In 1970, Iran signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which deemed the country a non-nuclear state.

While Trump has warned that Iran could have a nuclear bomb “within six months,” the first report from the International Atomic Energy Agency since the Iran conflict started says that there has been no major change to the country’s nuclear program, according to Reuters.

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Federal Judge Quashes ‘Retaliatory’ Subpoenas Against Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz

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Six grand jury subpoenas were quashed by a federal judge Wednesday, when it was decided that the subpoenas were filed to retaliate against Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s administration and the city governments of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz of the District of Minnesota made his ruling public on Monday, granting the motion requested by the Minnesota officials to quash grand jury subpoenas related to Minnesota declaring itself to be a “sanctuary” state.

Last December, the Department of Homeland Security deployed over 3,000 agents to Minnesota as part of the largest immigration-related operation in the department’s history, Operation Metro Surge. After the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by DHS agents, the state of Minnesota as well as the twin cities challenged Operation Metro Surge in court, prompting President Donald Trump to rail against the local officials on social media.

READ MORE: Trump Dangles Another Insurrection Act Threat for Minnesota

Days after Minnesota, Minneapolis and St. Paul filed suit, news reports revealed that the Department of Justice had begun to investigate Walz and Minnesota Mayor Jacob Frey. Trump administration officials said that by not supporting the actions of DHS, Walz and Frey were breaking the law.

The Minnesotan officials argued that the subpoenas were “issued as part of an unconstitutional effort to coerce” them into working with DHS and ICE.

Judge Schiltz found that though grand juries traditionally “have broad investigatory powers,” the subpoenas had exceeded those powers. Schiltz agreed that the subpoenas were in violation of the Tenth Amendment, allowing states some degree of autonomy from the federal government.

Schiltz wrote that he had “no doubt” the subpoenas were issued for the “forbidden purposes” of attempting to “harass” or “coerce” Walz and Frey “into taking official action…. a blatantly unlawful and unethical use the grand-jury process.”

“On the one hand, the evidence that the challenged subpoenas were issued for unlawful reasons is overwhelming. On the other hand, the Department has struggled-without success-to identify a single plausible investigatory justification for the subpoenas,” Schiltz wrote, pointing out that the “public record… is replete with direct evidence of the Trump administration—including the highest-ranking officials of the Department—threatening and attempting to punish states and localities that have adopted ‘sanctuary’ policies.”

“To be clear, the Court agrees with the Department that a grand-jury subpoena need not be supported by probable cause. At the same time, a grand-jury subpoena cannot be issued for an improper purpose. The fact that connections between the information sought in the subpoenas and any possible criminal violation range from extremely weak to nonexistent only adds to the overwhelming evidence that these subpoenas were not issued to investigate, but to harass, coerce, and retaliate,” Schiltz added.

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