Focus On: All of the Many, Many Lies George Santos Has Told
From his Jewish ancestry to his work history and college education, New York congressman-elect George Santos’ list of lies is long. And it appears he isn’t done yet.
WN: This is Trump (weighing in at 30,000 mistruths – that’s 21 a day – during his presidency); Herschel Walker whose campaign was one long string of lies; and a vast host of GOP leaders and followers.1 That’s not to say Democrat politicians do not lie! On the contrary: it’s way too often a politician’s code of (dis)honour . . .
I don’t get it! Why this enormous yen to prevaricate, when calling such whoppers out is child’s play!?
The Securities and Exchange Commission is also investigating Harbor City Capital, the Florida investment firm where Santos previously worked that the SEC has called a “classic Ponzi scheme.” Santos has said he had no awareness of any wrongdoing at the company.
The farmer with the golden retrievers in York County said Santos arrived after 9 p.m. on Nov. 13, 2017. Santos said he would pay more than $5,000 by wire transfer for eight puppies, the farmer said, and insisted that he could see via his cellphone that the money had been transferred.
“He was there for more than an hour trying to convince me,” the farmer said. “His tongue waggles, he talks fast. Smooth talker is how I’m going to explain it.”
…
Staten Island resident Michele Vazzo said she adopted an English cream golden retriever at one of FOPU[a pet rescue “charity” Santos ran]’s Pet Oasis [where pet charity auctions were held] events that year, paying the charity $300 or $400. She said Santos told her at the time that the dogs had been rescued from an Amish puppy mill.
Daniel Avissato, who owned Pet Oasis at the time, said the store did not share in any of the money Santos took in and cut ties with him after a short period. When the store gave a check to Santos’s charity, the cashed check showed that the charity name had been crossed out and replaced with Santos’s name, Avissato said.
The episode was first reported[2] by the New York Times.
Mr. Santos has not substantiated his claims. Few public records exist to corroborate them, and Friends of Pets United’s operations appear to have centered on a Facebook group that is now defunct. Only traces of the organization remain on public social media posts and GoFundMe campaigns, and Mr. Santos’s campaign biography no longer mentions it.
What do we know about George Santos? By virtually every account available to us, he’s a strange man who has used the name Anthony Devolder at various points in his life, both in Brazil and in America. We know that both the Devolder and Santos personas are connected with a handful of investigations related to conman-style fraud. We know that the Republican Party is a swamp filled with frauds and as long as they can leverage George Santos or Anthony Devolder for their power, he is just one of the guys.
He’s also a liar. He’s lied about who he is, who his mother is (and when and how she died), who his ancestors are, and his excuses have been the kind of thing a grade school teacher would not accept without a call to a guardian and a meeting with a social worker. He remains in the news cycle because it seems that every day or two a new story illuminating the awkwardness, the darkness, and the seeming transparency of Santos/Devolder’s lies and alleged scams comes to light.
On Monday, more information surfaced in regard to George Santos’ supposed nonprofit charity, Friends of Pet United. It was both depressing and surreal. As with every point of every Santos story, one is left to wonder why and how the Nassau County, New York, Republican was allowed to get away with all of this alleged lying and scamming.
On Thursday, a new $15,125 wrinkle in bad checks was added to the Santos saga.
We know that the Republican Party is a swamp filled with frauds and as long as they can leverage George Santos or Anthony Devolder for their power, he is just one of the guys.
We know that the Republican Party is a swamp filled with frauds and as long as they can leverage George Santos or Anthony Devolder for their power, he is just one of the guys.One can laugh at Santos, to be sure. But not only is his life a tragedy, so is the GOP that continues to back him–an even greater tragedy.
excerpts:
Serial liar George Santos turned up on Capitol Hill for his first day as congressman-elect on Tuesday, amid fresh accusations of untruths. It appears the freshman Republican couldn’t get through his first day without lying.
On Wednesday morning, Santos’ website claimed he voted “nay” on the House omnibus spending bill.
The problem: the vote took place on Dec. 23—weeks before Santos took office.
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It hasn’t been a great few weeks for 34-year-old Santos—a bombastic Republican candidate who was elected to represent Nassau County and parts of Queens in November 2022.
An explosive investigation in TheNew York Times last month started a wave of accusations against Santos for outright lies. He has been caught lying about his ancestry, his family background, his education, his work history, his finances, and his charitable efforts.
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While we wait to see what Santos has in store for us next, here’s a round-up of all the biggest lies he is accused of telling . . .
Federal and local prosecutors are investigating whether Mr. Santos’s lies on the campaign trail or his unusual campaign expenses and fund-raising practices merit criminal charges. And F.B.I. agents are now apparently looking into some of his work with Friends of Pets United, as first reported by Politico.
Mr. Santos has said that he “founded and ran” the charity from 2013 to 2018. In that time, Mr. Santos’s campaign biography once asserted, the organization rescued more than 2,500 animals. He recently characterized his involvement with the charity as a “labor of love and hard work.”
Mr. Santos has not substantiated his claims. Few public records exist to corroborate them, and Friends of Pets United’s operations appear to have centered on a Facebook group that is now defunct. Only traces of the organization remain on public social media posts and GoFundMe campaigns, and Mr. Santos’s campaign biography no longer mentions it.
Mr. Santos’s lawyer, Joe Murray, would not answer questions about Friends of Pets United, citing pending investigations into Mr. Santos.[↩]
Wayne Northey was Director of Man-to-Man/Woman-to-Woman – Restorative Christian Ministries (M2/W2) in British Columbia, Canada from 1998 to 2014, when he retired. He has been active in the criminal justice arena and a keen promoter of Restorative Justice since 1974. He has published widely on peacemaking and justice themes. You will find more about that on this website: a work in progress.
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