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‘It Appears Santos Is Not Jewish’: Claims Made by Alleged Fraudster of Having Jewish Heritage ‘May Be Untrue’ – Report

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On November 10, just two days after Election Day, Jewish Insider published an interview titled, “Meet the next Jewish Republican congressman from Long Island.” Reporter Matthew Kassel wrote that George Santos “will make history as Long Island’s first openly gay representative,” and he “can also claim another unique distinction: Santos, 34, will be the only Jewish Republican member of New York’s House delegation when he is sworn in this January.”

There’s faith, and there’s heritage.

“The way I look at this is, I’m going to represent one of the most Jewish-rich districts in the country, with the most population of Jews,” Santos told Jewish Insider, “and I’m going to do that honorably.”

Barely more than a month later, not even sworn in to Congress, Santos appears to have broken his promise.

READ MORE: Why Does New York’s Alleged Fraudster Incoming Congressman Have a Florida Address? Many More Questions Still Unanswered

According to reporting from The New York Times and other publications, Santos appears to have lied about where he went to school, where he lives, where he worked, and now, as Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel suggests, Santos’ claim of being of Jewish heritage is being called into question by Jewish publications.

Jacob Kornbluh, a senior reporter at The Forward, a 125-year old publication that calls itself “a leading source of news, opinion and culture through a Jewish lens,” shows Santos claiming to be of Jewish heritage.

Just months after the coronavirus pandemic began, in June of 2020, Santos got into a disturbing exchange on Twitter.

“Wow you pulled the Nazi card on the grandson of Holocaust refugees! Smart move there,” Santos charged, attacking a woman who had called him a Nazi. “I’m sure you educate you family to be just as beligerant and intolerant towards others. Sending much needed love to you! #GodBlessYou,” he added, misspelling included.

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Kornbluh pointed to that exchange and noted on Wednesday, “In 2020 Santos claimed to be the ‘grandson of Holocaust refugees.'”

Kornbluh also posted video of Santos saying, “I’m very proud of my Jewish heritage.”

He also pointed to an article at The Forward that reads: “it appears Santos is not Jewish — and lied about his family fleeing persecution during the war. Neither of his maternal grandparents appear in Brazilian immigration cards in the 1930s or 1940s, or in the databases of Yad Vashem…”

The author of that piece, Andrew Silverstein, calls Santos’ claim of being of Jewish heritage “one more lie.”

“Congressman-elect George Santos’ emotional narrative of having Jewish grandparents who fled Europe during World War II appears to be untrue, like much of the rest of his campaign biography, according to genealogy websites reviewed by the Forward,” writes Silverstein.

“Santos, a Long Island Republican, has said that his father was Catholic and his mother was Jewish, and that both faiths ‘are mine.’ The very first line of the ‘About George’ page on his campaign website states: ‘George’s grandparents fled Jewish persecution in Ukraine, settled in Belgium, and again fled persecution during WWII.'”

READ MORE: Mnuchin ‘Lied’ to Congress and ‘Broke the Law to Protect Trump’s Taxes’ Says Top House Democrat

Silverstein adds: “But the website myheritage.com lists Santos’ maternal grandparents as having both been born in Brazil before the Nazis rose to power.”

And he even quoted Santos.

“Whether my mother’s Jewish background beliefs, which are mine, or my father’s Roman Catholic beliefs, which are also mine, are represented or not,” Santos told Silverstein. “I want to represent everyone else that practices every other religion to make sure everybody feels like they have a partner in me.”

He also cites another genealogist, and writes they “confirmed by email that the family does not have Ukrainian or Jewish roots.”

Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports that “Brazilian database records,” and a “historian cast doubt on Santos’ claims of Jewish ancestry.”

 

This article has been updated to include Insider’s latest reporting citing database records.

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‘Bad News’ for Sidney Powell as First Trump Co-Defendant in Georgia RICO Case Takes Plea Deal: Legal Expert

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September 29, 2023

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The first of 19 co-defendants in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ RICO and election interference case against Donald Trump has pleaded guilty in what is being described as a “plea deal.”

“Under the terms of an agreement with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s office, Hall pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit election fraud, conspiracy to commit computer theft, conspiracy to commit computer trespass, conspiracy to commit computer invasion of privacy, and conspiracy to defraud the state,” NBC News reports. “Under the terms of the deal, he’s being sentenced to five years probation.”

CNN previously reported “Hall, a bail bondsman and pro-Trump poll-watcher in Atlanta, spent hours inside a restricted area of the Coffee County elections office when voting systems were breached in January 2021. The breach was connected to efforts by pro-Trump conspiracy theorists to find voter fraud. Hall was captured on surveillance video at the office, on the day of the breach. He testified before the grand jury in Fulton County case and acknowledged that he gained access to a voting machine.”

READ MORE: Will McConnell and Senate Republicans Use Feinstein’s Passing to Grind Biden’s Judicial Confirmations to a Halt?

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, a professor of law and frequent MSNBC contributor, says Hall “was in the thick of things with Sidney Powell on Jan 7 for the Coffee County scheme involving voting machines. If he’s cooperating, it’s a bad sign for her.”

Hall’s plea deal “spells bad news for, among others, Sidney Powell,” says former Dept. of Defense Special Counsel Ryan Goodman, an NYU Law professor of law. Goodman posted a graphic showing the overlap in charges against Hall and Powell, which he called “alleged joint actions.”

See the graphic above or at this link.

 

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Far-Right Republicans Kill GOP Bill to Keep Government Running in ‘Embarrassing Failure’ for McCarthy: Report

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September 29, 2023

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With a shutdown less than 36 hours away, far-right Republicans in the House of Representatives Friday afternoon voted against their party’s own legislation to kept the federal government running. Democrats opposed the content of the bill and voted against it. Just 21 far-right members of the GOP conference were able to effectively force what appears to be an all but inevitable shutdown at midnight on Saturday.

“HARDLINE HOUSE RS take down stopgap funding bill. 21 GOP no votes. 232-198,” reported Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman just before 2 PM Friday.

NBC News reported that a “band of conservative rebels on Friday revolted and blocked House Republicans’ short-term funding bill to keep the government open, delivering a political blow to Speaker Kevin McCarthy and likely cementing the chances of a painful government shutdown that is less than 48 hours away.”

READ MORE: Will McConnell and Senate Republicans Use Feinstein’s Passing to Grind Biden’s Judicial Confirmations to a Halt?

“Twenty-one rebels, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a conservative bomb-thrower and a top Donald Trump ally, voted Friday afternoon to scuttle the 30-day funding bill, known as a continuing resolution or CR, leaving Republicans without a game plan to avert a shutdown. The vote failed,” NBC added. “The embarrassing failure of the GOP measure once again highlights the dilemma for McCarthy as his hard-liners strongly oppose a short-term bill even if it includes conservative priorities. It leaves Congress on a path to a shutdown, with no apparent offramp to avoiding it — or to quickly reopen the government.”

A bipartisan group of at least 75 U.S. Senators has passed two bills this week that would keep the government running. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy has refused to allow it to come to the floor for a vote.

 

 

 

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‘Wannabe Dictator’: Milley Appears to Slam Trump After Ex-President Suggested He Should Be Executed

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September 29, 2023

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General Mark Milley, the outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top military advisor to the President, during his retirement speech Friday appeared to deliver strong criticism of former President Donald Trump, who appointed him to that post but since has waged war against him.

One week ago the ex-president had said that “in times gone by” General Milley would have been executed for treason. Trump in 2021 had called for General Milley to be “tried for treason.”

“Trump’s rhetoric is dangerous, not just because it is the exact sort that incites violence against public officials,” professor of global politics and political scientist Brian Klass wrote at The Atlantic after Trump’s most recent attack on the Chairman, “but also because it shows just how numb the country has grown toward threats more typical of broken, authoritarian regimes.”

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Trump had written, “if the Fake News reporting is correct,” General Milley “was actually dealing with China to give them a heads up on the thinking of the President of the United States. This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH! A war between China and the United States could have been the result of this treasonous act.”

Milley was acting within his duties in a White House approved conversation, according to Klass.

On Friday, Milley appeared to blast Trump.

“We don’t take an oath to a tribe. We don’t take an oath to a religion. We don’t take an oath to a king, or queen, or a tyrant, or dictator. We don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator,” Milley declared. “We don’t take an oath to an individual. We take an oath to the Constitution, and we take an oath to the idea that is America, and we’re willing to die to protect it.”

“Every soldier, sailor, airman, Marine, Guardian and Coast Guardsmen, each of us, emits our very life to protect and defend that document, regardless of personal price to a country.”

READ MORE: ‘He Knows I’m Right’: Democrat Mocks ‘Scared’ McCarthy and Blows Off Chairman Comer in ‘Very Unserious’ Hearing

Vanity Fair on Thursday reported General Milley “said he has taken security precautions to protect himself and his family after Donald Trump all but called for his execution last week.”

Watch Milley’s remarks below or at this link.

 

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