The corresponding statement by the responsible prosecutor Anne Donnelly – like Santos she is a Republican – about the cause was tough: The “lies and inconsistencies” associated with Santos were “simply breathtaking”, it said. The excerpts from the statement received a prominent place in several major US media outlets, including The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Nassau County residents “need to have an honest and accountable representative in Congress,” prosecutor Donnelly added in the statement. And it went on to say: “No one is above the law, and if a crime has been committed in this county, we will prosecute it.” From the start, Santos had shown no intention of resigning despite the circumstances.
Jobs and college degrees invented
Not even when he admitted in interviews on Monday after corresponding media reports that he had lied about his creed, his education and his professional career: Contrary to what was claimed, he had never worked for the banks Goldman Sachs and Citigroup and never earned a university degree .
In addition, Santos told the New York Post that, contrary to what was claimed during the election campaign, he was not Jewish, but Catholic. He literally told the newspaper: “I’m Catholic. Because I learned that my maternal family has Jewish roots, I said I was ‘Jewish’.” Santos apologized for “embellishing” his resume.
“I’m not a criminal”
Before Christmas, the “New York Times” and other media had noticed the inconsistencies in Santos’ career. During the election campaign, for example, Santos claimed to be a graduate of New York’s Baruch University. But they found no records about him. Nor could Goldman Sachs confirm that Santos had worked there as claimed. Reports on this subsequently forced Santos to deal aggressively with the information.
However, Santos rejected calls from the Democratic Party to give up his seat in Congress. “I’m not a criminal,” he told the New York Post. Several Democrats had called on Kevin McCarthy, the current Republican minority leader in the House of Representatives, to put Santos’ expulsion to a vote if he didn’t resign of his own accord.
Contradictory information about the death of your own mother?
But beyond job and education misrepresentations, there are other unanswered questions surrounding Santos – including the source of what appears to be a relatively quick fortune despite recent financial woes, including evictions and rent arrears. The information about his finances seems so opaque that now the investigators are also interested in it.
And as if that weren’t enough of the serious allegations, apparently contradictory information about the time of Santos’ mother’s death has been causing a stir on social networks since Wednesday. In two different posts on Twitter, Santos wrote on the one hand that his mother was killed in the September 11 attacks in New York, and in another tweet a good five months later he wrote – if “Mom” meant his mother, she was died in 2016.
Swearing-in scheduled for Tuesday
How your own party will deal with the cause will be revealed by next Tuesday – on this day, the House of Representatives will meet to make the oaths. Should Santos take office, investigations by the House Ethics Committee and the Justice Department could be launched against him. It was only on Wednesday that he tweeted about a visit that he would not consider withdrawing. He is looking forward to the office, he wrote.
Santos had helped his Republicans secure a slim majority of 222 to 212 seats in the House of Representatives with his victory against his Democratic challenger Robert Zimmerman in the Democrat stronghold of New York in the midterm elections. And precisely because the majority is so tight, every vote counts for parliamentary group leader McCarthy, after all he wants to be elected president of the chamber.
