New York lawmaker urges federal prosecutors to investigate George Santos' questionable finances
On Tuesday's edition of CNN's "OutFront," retiring Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) urged a criminal financial investigation into Rep.-elect George Santos (R-NY), who will be taking his seat in January.
Santos, who won Suozzi's vacant seat as part of a strong statewide performance by Republicans in New York, was revealed by a series of journalistic investigations to have fabricated large portions of his résumé, including that he graduated from Baruch College and New York University, that he worked at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, that he ran an animal rescue charity, that he lost coworkers in the Pulse Nightclub shooting, and even that his parents escaped from the Holocaust.
"Congressman, this is not Santos' first time running. You beat him in 2020," said anchor Sara Sidner. "But now he has won the seat and says he intends to serve his full term. Can anything be done about that? Or is this just about what the constituents want done?"
"What can happen?" said Suozzi. "I mean, Kevin McCarthy could decide that he is bad for the Republican Party and put pressure on him to not take his seat. He could try and use what authority he has to not seat him. The Ethics Committee in Congress can investigate him for the lies that he has made on not only the thing you reported on."
"But big concerns about his financial disclosures," continued Suozzi. "The U.S. Attorney's office can investigate him to find out where this money came from that he — you know, when he ran against me, he had $40,000 in his campaign account. It was the middle of COVID. I never even mentioned his name in the campaign. I beat him by 12 points. Now all of the sudden he had all this money that he loaned from himself. When he was running against me ... he was being evicted for nonpayment of rent. Then during this campaign, he loaned $700,000 to his campaign. As you mentioned, the New York Attorney General can investigate him. So there are so many different things that can happen."
"But the bottom line is, this is bad for the Republican Party. This is bad for America," said Suozzi. "People don't know who to trust anymore. They don't know who to trust in politics. And this is just making it much — this is so crazy. This is a crazy story. And it's just bad for all of us. It's sad. It's this kind of culture that President Trump gave us. You can just say whatever you want and nobody is going to follow up on it."
At the same time, Politico's Laura Rozen has noticed that there are a number of reimbursements that the campaign made to Santos that all are the exact same amount.
Il Bacco Restaurante, for example, cost $199.99, his Hyatt Orlando Hotel was also $199.99, as was one reimbursement for a Delta Airlines plane ticket, BJ's Wholesale expenses were also $199.99. An Uber taxi fare in California turned out to be $199.99. Another Florida hotel in South Beach, Florida was $199.99. Oddly the Hyatt Orlando says their going rate is $250. The W Hotel in South Beach costs a little closer to $737 a night in the low season and over $1,200 during the high season.
Ironically, $199.99 is the top dollar amount that can be contributed before there's a need for a public disclosure of the donor, amount, date of receipt, and the occupation and employer of the donor, the FEC website explains.
"The committee must also itemize, as a memo entry, any specific transactions charged on a credit card if payments to the actual vendor exceed the $200 aggregate threshold during the calendar year. The memo entry must include the name and address of the vendor, the purpose of the disbursement, date the services were received, and the amount of the disbursement," the FEC also says.
It's aggregate, however. So, the $199.99 payment to Il Bacco Restaurante three times means it's going to be public. It's unclear what Santos was doing with the reimbursements but it's likely to draw the eye of the FEC.
Watch the CNN discussion below or you can view it at the link here:
Tom Suozzi on George Santos www.youtube.com