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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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Pelosi Delivers Brutal Response After McCarthy’s Acting Replacement Orders Her to Vacate Her Office Immediately

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Within hours of Kevin McCarthy being ousted as Speaker of the House late Tuesday afternoon, his hand-picked acting successor, U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), ordered Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi to vacate her Capitol Hill offices “by tomorrow.”

McHenry, whose title technically now is “Speaker Pro Tempore,” is a staunch McCarthy ally who worked diligently behind the scenes in January to help the now-former Speaker get elected on the fifteenth attempt, had an aide issue the order.

“‘Please vacate the space tomorrow, the room will be re-keyed,’ wrote a top aide on the Republican-controlled House Administration Committee,” Politico reported Tuesday night. “The room was being reassigned by the acting speaker ‘for speaker office use,’ the email said.”

Politico adds that “House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ staff helped Pelosi’s office make the move, according to a spokesperson for the former speaker.”

Pelosi, who was honored with the title “Speaker Emerita” in 2022 by the House Steering and Policy Committee in an effort to help unite the House, did not vote for or against McCarthy’s ouster. She remained in California to attend the funeral of her friend and colleague, the late U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein.

READ MORE: ‘Radical Left Marxists’: Trump Launches Attack Hours After Judge Imposes Gag Order

But Pelosi, the first and only woman Speaker of the House, who served from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2023, did not take McHenry’s order lying down.

“With all of the important decisions that the new Republican Leadership must address, which we are all eagerly awaiting, one of the first actions taken by the new Speaker Pro Tempore was to order me to immediately vacate my office in the Capitol,” Pelosi said in a statement, according to Politico’s Nicholas Wu. “Sadly, because I am in California to mourn the loss of and pay tribute to my dear friend Dianne Feinstein, I am unable to retrieve my belongings at this time.”

“This eviction is a sharp departure from tradition. As Speaker, I gave former Speaker Hastert a significantly larger suite of offices for as long as he wished,” She noted.

“Office space doesn’t matter to me, but it seems important to them,” Pelosi added. “Now that the new Republican Leadership has settled this important matter, let’s hope they get to work on what’s truly important to the American people.”

READ MORE: ‘Terrorist Attacks’: Murphy and Cornyn Slam House GOPers Over McCarthy Ouster

 

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‘Radical Left Marxists’: Trump Launches Attack Hours After Judge Imposes Gag Order

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Just hours after New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron imposed a limited gag order and directed Donald Trump to remove his social media post targeting and attacking, by name, the judge’s law clerk, the ex-president Tuesday evening issued an attack targeting the legal system, and apparently, by extension, Attorney General Letitia James.

Judge Engoron’s Tuesday order barred Trump from “posting, emailing or speaking publicly about any of my staff,” as Politico reported. The judge’s gag order did not extend to any officer of the court, witnesses, or anyone else involved in Attorney General James’ $250 million civil fraud case against Trump.

“Consider this statement a gag order forbidding all parties from posting, emailing or speaking publicly about any of my staff,” Engoron said Tuesday afternoon. “Failure to abide by this order will result in serious sanctions.”

Judge Engoron had announced in court: “This morning one of the defendants posted to his social media account a disparaging, untrue and personally identifying post about a member of my staff.”

“Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate and I will not tolerate them in any circumstances,” Engoron added.

Politico described Trump’s social media post as “a message alleging [the law clerk] ‘is running this case against me.’ The message was pulled from an account on X with fewer than 200 followers. Trump then linked to an Instagram account for Greenfield’s campaign for a judgeship in Manhattan civil court.”

READ MORE: ‘Part of the Authoritarian Playbook’: Trump’s Courthouse Rant Slammed by Fascism Scholars

“’How disgraceful! This case should be dismissed immediately!!’ Trump added. He also posted a photo of her alongside Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and referred to her as ‘Schumer’s girlfriend.'”

And while the judge ordered the social media post taken down, there’s nothing that can be done about the email blast Trump sent to “millions” of his supporters that included the post, as The New York Times reported.

Tuesday evening, despite having already been given one gag order, Trump appeared to tear into the legal system and Attorney General Letitia James in a series of false claims.

After claiming James’ civil lawsuit against him was unconstitutional and election interference, Trump wrote the decision to apply that statute to him “was done by Radical Left Marxists design, and is not the America we know.”

“It is so unfair that I am being tried under Section 63(12), which is unconstitutionally being used to punish me because I am substantially leading Crooked Joe Biden in the polls,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “It is a Consumer Protection Statute, and not meant, at all, for Election Interference purposes, which is what this is all about! Under this Section of the law, I am not even entitled to a JURY (there is no checking of a box alternative!).This was done by Radical Left Marxists design, and is not the America we know. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

As The New Yorker reported last week, the law Trump is referring to was “passed at the behest of one of” James’ “Republican predecessors, Jacob Javits.”

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‘Terrorist Attacks’: Murphy and Cornyn Slam House GOPers Over McCarthy Ouster

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After U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and seven of fellow far-right House Republicans voted to oust their own Speaker of the House for supporting a bipartisan vote to keep the federal government of the United States from a shutdown, a powerful Senate Republican and Democrat are both strongly denouncing the work of the few GOP extremists who toppled Kevin McCarthy.

U.S. Senator John Cornyn, a hard-core Republican of Texas and a former member of the Senate Republican leadership team, blasted the eight House Republicans for their “terrorist attack,” and warned it will happen again.

“We saw a similar thing happen to Boehner, Ryan, and now McCarthy. I’m sure the next speaker is going to be subjected to the same terrorist attacks,” Senator Cornyn said, according to HuffPost’s Igor Bobic.

Responding to a Texas radio talk show host from his official social media account, Sen. Cornyn added, “A handful [of] House members just want to blow up the institution and themselves in the process. Sad.”

READ MORE: McCarthy Ousted as Speaker in Historic First as Republicans Vow Vengeance Against Gaetz: ‘Kiss My A–’

U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) called the ouster “a deeply embarrassing moment for America. A consequence of a Republican Party that has become so radicalized that it can no longer function as an organized political party.”

“Nobody should be rooting for this circus,” added Sen. Murphy in video recorded as he watched the House voting to remove McCarthy as Speaker. He warned that the ouster of McCarthy will now take the House away from the critical work of keeping the government open after November 17, “instead of working on a budget.” And he warned that no new funds to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war have been authorized.

“These are life and death stakes,” Murphy said, lamenting this “makes us look so weak and foolish around the world.”

Watch Sen. Murphy’s remarks above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Part of the Authoritarian Playbook’: Trump’s Courthouse Rant Slammed by Fascism Scholars

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