We were duped:' How George Santos raised money from wealthy GOP donors while lying about his resume

[Suburban Warrior]

"A Santos campaign fundraiser impersonated Kevin McCarthy’s chief of staff to help raise campaign cash."

A member of George Santos’ political team had a plan to raise money for the congressman’s campaign: impersonate Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s chief of staff.

Wealthy donors received calls and emails from a man who said he was Dan Meyer, McCarthy’s chief of staff, during the 2020 and 2022 election cycles, according to people familiar with the matter. He was actually named Sam Miele, and worked for Santos raising money for his campaign, according to one GOP donor who contributed to Santos’ campaign. This financier and some others in this story declined to be named in order to speak freely about private discussions.

The imitation of the chief of staff of the top House Republican adds to an emerging picture of a winning congressional campaign propelled by fabrications and questionable tactics. Santos now finds himself in the sights of investigators and in danger of losing his political career even after he’s been sworn into office. In raising money for his campaign, Santos fed donors the same falsehoods he gave voters, campaign fundraisers and others say.

At private events with GOP donors and political leaders, Santos would flaunt or hint at key parts of his resume that have turned out to be false, according to records and people familiar with the matter. The Republican would also tout his business record that’s now in question, including claims that he worked on Wall Street, as a way to encourage donors to contribute to his campaign, according to financiers and party operatives familiar with the matter.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/09/george-santos-raised-money-from-wealthy-gop-donors-while-lying-about-his-resume.html

[dalton99a]

1. Kick

The lies and embellishments helped Santos and his allies raise nearly $3 million for his winning 2022 campaign to represent New York’s 3rd District. The donations were spread between Santos’ campaign, a pro-Santos leadership PAC and two joint fundraising committees that were created to bring in money for his campaign, his leadership PAC and the Nassau County Republican Committee, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

Some of the tactics deployed by campaign fundraisers have raised eyebrows among ethics and legal experts. Brendan Fischer, a deputy executive director of the watchdog Documented, and Robert Maguire, a research director at campaign ethics watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, each told CNBC that the impersonation of McCarthy’s chief of staff could have broken the law.

“A person who misrepresented themselves as speaking on behalf of a candidate in order to raise money may have committed a criminal violation, and any other person who knowingly and willfully participated in the plan could also face criminal charges,” Fischer said in an email.

The Washington Times reported last month that one of Santos’ staffers was impersonating Meyer, but didn’t identify who it was. McCarthy’s team first learned about a Santos staffer impersonating the speaker’s chief of staff in August 2021, the Times wrote. The publication said the staffer would call donors pretending to be Meyer and send follow-up emails from a fake address.

Dan Meyer is a well-known GOP lobbyist. Evidently McCarthy was fine with it

[Taylor Picker]

4. McCarthy's team knew in August 2021 and said nothing...

...and McCarthy swore him in as if he hadn't raised money by having someone impersonate his chief of staff.



Motion to vacate the chair!

[onecaliberal]

2. Yeah because your party nominee is such a fucking paragon of virtue.

The whole party is a criminal enterprise.

[dweller]

3. Get your $$ back ?

Fools and their $$ … as the saying goes


✌🏻

[Hortensis]

5. Speaking of CRIMES, Repubs controlling the Ethics Committee are on it:

Maybe he'll be offered a deal to resign he can't refuse. Or maybe he'll serve his term as a constant in-the-news embarrassment to the GOP and those who voted for him.

Btw, the new GOP majority is considering a hiring freeze for the Ethics Committee it just took control of, for nefarious, unethical purposes of course.

Law & Crime: Sparking alarm from advocacy groups, the House GOP intends to vote on a provision slipped into the rules ... A bipartisan watchdog, the Committee historically has had a 5-5 breakdown between the two major parties. The rules proposed ... do not alter that fundamental structure.

Two of the changes, however, could effectively oust the current Democratic members and make it harder to hire staff necessary to conduct investigations.

As envisioned by the bill, “the provision regarding appointment and compensation of staff shall require an affirmative vote of at least 4 members of the board not later than 30 calendar days after the date of the adoption of this resolution.”

Legal expert Mitchell Epner, a former federal prosecutor, notes that will give the committee an exceedingly narrow, monthlong window to replace board members and hire new staff, “including background checks.”

“I cannot imagine a reason to do this for the Ethics Committee (and no other committee), other than to decrease its efficacy,” added Epner ...

For Accountable.US, the timing of the proposed rules change for the Ethics Committee appeared to be suspect.

“It’s telling that one of the very first actions of the incoming MAGA Republican-led House will be to kneecap a bipartisan office that oversees Congressional ethics. This is about protecting their ethically-challenged Members like fraudster George Santos or Jan 6 subpoena-defying Jim Jordan from accountability – or perhaps in anticipation of a new wave of corruption allegations and ethics violations from other MAGA extremists.” ...

“There is certainly no good reason to make it easier for members to get away with ethics violations, which only invites bad behavior. It sends a clear message that the MAGA House is more interested in sweeping any corruption amongst their ranks under the rug and performing political stunts against the Biden administration than they are doing anything constructive on behalf of the American people.” ...

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/just-as-rep-elect-george-santos-comes-into-office-house-gop-considers-rules-that-could-hamper-the-ethics-committee/

Oh, you guys...! So predictable.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. How is this not mail fraud

[Hermit-The-Prog]

9. It has to be some kind of fraud!

[dutch777]

7. Would be useful to have a law enforcement (not Congressional) investigation of all this and charges

of fraud etc. where appropriate. Clearly Santos is not smart enough or capable enough on his own to have done this. The number of organizations and people duped by this is truly astounding. Him getting voted out next election is great but has to be more serious spanking to all involved to see this doesn't happen again.

[Blue Owl]

8. Investigations, eh?

How long will these so-called 'investigations' take when everyone already knows the guy is a complete lying fraud???

Kick this fucker out NOW, he wouldn't make it one day in any other job once his employers were aware of the massive scale of deception and dishonesty this lying sack of shit has built his political career on.

[Genki Hikari]

10. The only way he gets expelled from Congress

Is if 2/3 of the members vote to boot him out.

They can't even get to 50% to elect a speaker, and you expect enough of them to vote to remove one of their own?