Thousands of dollars in donations the George Santos campaign claims to have made during his first congressional run in 2019 for some reason were never received – and with at least one, had it been, it would have been unlawful.
Over $9000 the Santos campaign’s financial filings claim were made to Donald Trump’s re-election campaign and local GOP groups never appeared, “and may not have been donated,” according to Politico.
“The purported donations included $2,800 to Trump’s campaign that isn’t reflected in his campaign finance disclosures — and would have exceeded contribution limits if it did happen as Santos’ campaign reported it.”
The Santos campaign did make many more donations that actually appeared, with Politico calling him “a prolific political donor, giving tens of thousands of dollars to other candidates, groups and nonprofits. Most of the later money was confirmed as received in those groups’ own filings, although there are more reports that did not match up, including $2,000 that Santos’ campaign reported giving in 2021 to Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters, though Santos’ disclosure listed a nonexistent Florida address for Masters’ campaign.”
The “mismatching reports do fit into a pattern of other inaccuracies and discrepancies in the New York congressman’s finances, dating back to the very early days of his first campaign,” Politico adds. One federal campaign finance reform expert calls the irregularities part of a “troubling pattern,” and “another serious reporting error or perhaps even outright fraud.”