Did Out Republican Congressman George Santos Pad his Resume?
Openly gay Republican Rep.-elect George Santos seems to have been caught red-handed padding several parts of his resume just as he prepares to enter the House of Representatives for the first time in January.
As reported by the New York Times, there are several sections of Santos' education history that seem to contradict each other or are just plain made up.
NYT reports that Santos has not responded to repeated requests to provide documents to substantiate his claims. However, his lawyer did issue a statement rebuking the findings of the report.
In a statement to CNN, Joseph Murray, an attorney for Santos, said NYT was attempting to "smear" the congressman-elect with "defamatory allegations."
"Santos represents the kind of progress that the Left is so threatened by — a gay, Latino, immigrant and Republican who won a Biden district in overwhelming fashion by showing everyday voters that there is a better option than the broken promises and failed policies of the Democratic Party," Murray said.
However, the discrepancies in his qualifications raise ethical and legal questions that he "deserves an opportunity to address" said Joseph Cairo Jr., the influential chairman of Nassau County's Republican Party.
"Every person deserves an opportunity to 'clear' his/her name in the face of accusations," Cairo added.
Santos claimed to be a "private sector guy" with a career background at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. But both firms confirmed that they have no record of his employment. Moreover, Santos claimed to have degrees from New York University and Baruch College, with a master degree from at least one of those those schools, but that hasn't been confirmed.
Santos' work for the Devolder Organization, which he claimed is a "family firm" managing $80 million in assets, hasn't been able to be confirmed either.
Santos defeated Democrat Robert Zimmerman for the district covering parts of Queens and some nearby Long Island suburbs. His key victory flipped control of the House to Republicans.
Questioned about the Democratic Party's opposition research on Santos, New York State Democratic Party chair Jay Jacobs "pushed back against suggestions the party or Zimmerman campaign had dropped the ball and sought to redirect attention to questions about Santos' financial statements," CNN reported.
"It's unfair to blame the campaign for opposition research work that it did because the resources of a campaign are not as significant as a paper like The New York Times, that can do a lot more with its investigation," Jacobs said. "The important thing is to focus on George Santos. He's got a lot of explaining to do. And I think that his biggest vulnerability is in the area of campaign finance."