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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Republican candidate for New York’s 3rd Congressional District George Santos campaigns outside a Stop and Shop store, Nov. 5, in Glen Cove, N.Y. Santos, who won a seat in Congress in the November election is under pressure to explain himself amid evidence that he fabricated parts of the life story that endeared him to New York voters.
NEW YORK >> Ending a weeklong silence, Rep.-elect George Santos admitted on Monday to a sizable list of falsehoods about his professional background, educational history and property ownership. But he said he was determined to take the oath of office on Jan. 3 and join the House majority.
Santos, R-N.Y., who was elected in November to represent parts of northern Long Island and northeast Queens, confirmed some of the key findings of a New York Times investigation into his background, but sought to minimize the misrepresentations.
“My sins here are embellishing my résumé,” Santos told The New York Post in one of several interviews he gave on Monday.
Santos admitted to lying about graduating from college and making misleading claims that he worked for Citigroup or Goldman Sachs. He once said he had a family-owned real estate portfolio of 13 properties; on Monday, he admitted he was not a landlord.
Santos, the first openly gay Republican to win a House seat as a non-incumbent, also acknowledged owing thousands in unpaid rent and a yearslong marriage he had never disclosed.
“I dated women in the past. I married a woman. It’s personal stuff,” he said to The Post, adding that he was “OK with my sexuality. People change.”
The admissions by Santos added a new wrinkle to one of the more astonishing examples of an incoming congressman falsifying key biographical elements of his background — with Santos maintaining the falsehoods through two consecutive bids for Congress, the first of which he lost.
Even as Santos admitted to some fabrication, his actions will likely not prevent him from being seated in Congress.
The House can only prevent candidates from taking office if they violate the Constitution’s age, citizenship and state residency requirements. Once he has been seated, however, Santos could face ethics investigations, legal experts have said.
Of greater potential concern are questions about Santos’ financial disclosures, in which he reported earning millions of dollars from his company, the Devolder Organization.
Santos disclosed little about the operations of his company, and the Times could find no public-facing assets or other property tied to the firm. Santos also did not list any clients on his disclosures, despite the requirement that candidates list any compensation over $5,000 from a single source.
Intentionally omitting or misrepresenting information on a congressional financial disclosure is considered a federal crime.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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