Congressman-elect George Santos’ web of lies has gotten much more tangled after he stated last 12 months that the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks claimed his mother’s life — only to tweet months later that she actually died of cancer in 2016.
The Republican Santos, who’s poised to represent Recent York’s third Congressional District starting next week, has admitted to fabricating much of his resume and concocting lies about various facets of his personal life and family background.
Journalist Yashar Ali first shared Santos’ contradictory tweets about his mom, which he fired off five months apart in 2021.
In July of that 12 months, Santos was responding to an account called “9/11 is a victimless crime” when he wrote: “9/11 claimed my moms (sic) life…so I’m blocking so I don’t ever must read this again.”
In December of the identical 12 months, Santos tweeted: “December twenty third this 12 months marks 5 years I lost my best friend and mentor. Mom you’ll live perpetually in my heart.”
Santos’ campaign website states that his mother “was in her office within the South Tower on September 11, 2001, when the horrific events of that day unfolded. She survived the tragic events of September eleventh, but she passed away a couple of years later when she lost her battle to cancer.”
In line with her online obituary, Santos’ mother, Fatima A.C.H. Devolder, died on Dec. 23, 2016 — greater than 15 years and three months after the attacks. She passed away at a Long Island hospice facility a day after celebrating her sixty fourth birthday.
As of August of last 12 months, shortly before the twentieth anniversary of 9/11, health officials said they’d recorded 23,710 cases of cancer amongst first responders and folks who lived, worked or went to highschool near the World Trade Center. That total included 1,510 deaths.
While it’s conceivable that Fatima Devolder contracted cancer from toxins released by the collapse of the Twin Towers, there is no such thing as a evidence she was at or around Ground Zero during or immediately after the attack.
A previous version of Santos’ website reportedly claimed that his mother worked as a financial executive, but public employment records obtained by NBC News indicated that her sole listed employer was an imports company in Queens that went out of business in 1994.
The Recent York Times reported last week that Fatima Devolder worked as a domestic aide in Brazil.
Santos didn’t immediately respond Thursday to phone and email messages asking him to make clear claims about his mother’s death.
In an interview with The Post Monday, Santos, 34 admitted that he lied about his college education, his employment history and non secular background.
Santos got here clean after The Times revealed that there was no record of his employment at top Wall Street firms Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. The publication also found no evidence that the congressman-elect ever graduated from Baruch College, as he indicated in his biography.
“My sins listed below are embellishing my resume. I’m sorry,” Santos said, adding, “we do silly things in life.”
In campaign materials, Santos described himself as a “proud American Jew.” Chatting with The Post, he clarified that he was actually Catholic, but “because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I used to be ‘Jew-ish,’” he said.
The admitted fabulist also claimed his family were refugees who escaped Nazi persecution in Ukraine and settled in Belgium before immigrating on to the US.
He told Fox News Digital in February that his ancestral name is Zabrovsky, but that he now uses his mother’s maiden name of Devolder, which is Dutch in origin.
A genealogist hired by CNN found “no sign of Jewish and/or Ukrainian heritage and no indication of name changes along the best way.”
Santos also said in a December 2020 radio interview that his mother immigrated to the US from Belgium, but genealogical records reviewed by CNN and The Forward indicated that she was a native of Brazil, as were Santos’ maternal grandparents.
On Wednesday, Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly, a Republican, announced that her office has launched an investigation into Santos.
“The various fabrications and inconsistencies related to Congressman-Elect Santos are nothing wanting stunning,” Donnelly said in a press release. “The residents of Nassau County and other parts of the Third District should have an honest and accountable representative in Congress.”
Dispute facing growing scrutiny and outrage from Democrats and Republicans alike, Santos has shown no signs that he can be willing to step aside before his Jan. 3 swearing-in ceremony.
Under Article I of the Structure, House members have to be no less than 25 years old, been a citizen of the US for no less than seven years and live within the state they represent. A duly elected member can’t be excluded from being seated unless they flout one among those criteria.