Congressman-elect George Santos (R-NY), embroiled in a scandal over his resume and claims made on the campaign trail, sits alone within the House Chamber surrounded only by the kids of other representatives, on the primary day of the 118th Congress on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., January 3, 2023.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
A member of George Santos’ political team had a plan to boost money for the Republican congressman’s campaign: Impersonate the chief of staff of now House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Wealthy donors received calls and emails from a person who said he was Dan Meyer, McCarthy’s chief of staff, through the 2020 and 2022 election cycles, in line with people aware of the matter. His name was actually Sam Miele, and he worked for Santos raising money for his campaign, in line with one GOP donor who contributed to Santos’ campaign. This financier and a few others on this story declined to be named with a purpose to speak freely about private discussions.
The impersonation of the highest House Republican’s chief of staff adds to an emerging picture of a winning congressional campaign propelled by fabrications and questionable tactics. Santos now finds himself within the sights of investigators and in peril of losing his political profession even after he’s been sworn into office. In raising money for his campaign, Santos fed donors the identical 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 which have turned out to be false, in line with records and folks aware of the matter. The Republican would also tout his business record that is now in query, including claims that he worked on Wall Street, as a strategy to encourage donors to contribute to his campaign, in line with financiers and party operatives aware of the matter.
“We were duped,” said a Republican political strategist near GOP donors and the leadership of the Republican Jewish Coalition. The group banned Santos from future events after the revelation that the congressman falsely claimed to be Jewish.
The lies and embellishments helped Santos and his allies raise nearly $3 million for his winning 2022 campaign to represent Latest York’s third District. The donations were spread between Santos’ campaign, a pro-Santos leadership PAC and two joint fundraising committees that were created to herald money for his campaign, his leadership PAC and the Nassau County Republican Committee, in line with Federal Election Commission filings.
A number of the tactics deployed by campaign fundraisers have raised eyebrows amongst ethics and legal experts. Brendan Fischer, a deputy executive director of the watchdog Documented, and Robert Maguire, a research director at campaign ethics watchdog Residents for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, each told CNBC that the impersonation of McCarthy’s chief of staff could have broken the law.
“A one who misrepresented themselves as speaking on behalf of a candidate with a purpose to raise money can have committed a criminal violation, and another one who knowingly and willfully participated within the plan could also face criminal charges,” Fischer said in an email.
The Washington Times reported last month that one in all Santos’ staffers was impersonating Meyer, but didn’t discover who it was. McCarthy’s team first learned a couple of 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.
Neither Santos nor anyone mentioned on this story has been charged with against the law. Santos’ lawyer wouldn’t say when asked whether Santos knew Miele pretended to be McCarthy’s chief of staff.
Santos has said in interviews that he is barely guilty of embellishing his resume and never committed any crimes. He has apologized for embellishing his past.
Santos’ attorney, Joe Murray, didn’t reply to follow-up requests for comment. Calls to Santos’ congressional office weren’t answered and emails to the incoming lawmaker weren’t returned.
McCarthy’s spokesman didn’t reply to repeated requests for comment. Miele also didn’t reply to repeated calls and emails for comment.
Embellishing his past to donors
Santos had major Latest York-area donors in his corner during a congressional bid that helped Republicans flip control of the House. John Catsimatidis, a billionaire and founding father of the Latest York grocery chain Gristedes, donated at the very least $4,650 to the Santos campaign between the first and general elections, in line with FEC records. Catsimatidis, who told CNBC he has no plans to assist Santos again if he runs for reelection, also said he had never heard from a purported member of McCarthy’s staff trying to boost money for the Santos campaign.
When asked if he felt duped by Santos’ claims about his past and why he selected to support him in the primary place, Catsimatidis only wrote back, “I wait for all of the facts.”
Santos also received $2,900 in September from Elliott Management founder Paul Singer, in line with the FEC. Groups supporting Santos also saw greater than $41,000 in donations through the two-year election cycle from Andrew Intrater, an investor and cousin of Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. Intrater and a representative for Elliott Management didn’t reply to requests for comment.
Santos’ pattern of misrepresenting his biography at times contributed to fundraising success. It prolonged to falsehoods about his religion.
Santos attended the RJC’s annual leadership meeting in November and claimed there that he was Jewish. Weeks later, he went to an RJC “Hanukkah Party” in Sands Point, Latest York, in line with an invite to the event and photo that Santos posted on Twitter. The invitation encouraged members often called “RJC Leaders” — who donate at the very least $1,000 to the larger organization — to attend.
His campaign took much more steps to portray Santos as Jewish. It shared a position paper with Jewish and pro-Israel leaders that called the then-candidate a “proud American Jew,” in line with a replica shared by The Forward.
Santos isn’t Jewish. He recently told the Latest York Post that he “never claimed to be Jewish. Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background, I said I used to be ‘Jew-ish.'”
The RJC is taken into account essentially the most distinguished group of Jewish Republican donors, making gatherings equivalent to the Hanukkah event key networking platforms for politicians. While the Hanukkah party was not a fundraising event, RJC members can donate anywhere between $100 and $25,000 to hitch the group and attend such gatherings, in line with the group’s website.
One RJC board member who donated to Santos’ campaign told CNBC that the Republican’s claims of being Jewish appealed to him. Attorney Eric Levine gave $500 to Santos in May, in line with an FEC filing. Levine said he donated to the campaign on the request of a friend.
Levine told CNBC that he later “soured” on Santos after the incoming lawmaker began aligning his views with ultraconservative House members equivalent to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. Levine recently wrote in an emailed essay to colleagues that what “Santos did is disgusting. He deserves to be humiliated and held in contempt.”
A spokesman for the RJC pointed CNBC to the group’s recent statement on Santos, which declared “he won’t be welcome at any future RJC events.”
Congressman-elect George Santos (R-NY), embroiled in a scandal over his resume and claims made on the campaign trail, sits alone within the House Chamber surrounded only by the kids of other representatives on the primary day of the 118th Congress on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., January 3, 2023.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Not less than one other Santos supporter felt compelled to assist the campaign based on the candidate’s embellished resume. Charles Vallone told CNBC that he met Santos at a GOP fundraiser, and the candidate impressed him with claims that he worked on Wall Street at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. Neither firm has any records that he worked there, in line with The Latest York Times. Spokespeople for each firms declined to comment further.
“I met George at a Republican fundraiser and now looking back with what we all know today, [I] unfortunately believed in him and was duped like all others who supported him and believed in his representations,” said Vallone, founding partner at tax and accounting firm Frankel Loughran Starr & Vallone.
He said Santos would speak to supporters and donors “about his financial background and experience on Wall Street. That he was a real immigrant story, coming from nothing and dealing his way up. … Now we all know that isn’t the case.”
Vallone gave $17,900 in August between Santos’ campaign, his leadership PAC and a joint fundraising committee, in line with FEC records. The Santos campaign also paid $11,000 in August to 33 West Important Street Holdings, an organization owned by Vallone, to rent a house in Oyster Bay, Latest York, for office space, FEC records show. Vallone said he wouldn’t rent to the Santos campaign again.
The home features a one-bedroom apartment that the campaign rented. Vallone said he doesn’t know the way the Santos team used the apartment. The FEC prohibits spending campaign funds for private use, including on rent for a private residence. No public records might be found to indicate if Santos or anyone else lived within the residence.
A string of questionable tactics
Santos has come under fire from Democratic lawmakers and a few Republican officials for lying about key elements of his resume. Prosecutors from the Eastern District of Latest York are examining Santos’ funds, including potential irregularities involving financial disclosures and loans Santos made to his campaign while he was running for Congress, in line with NBC News.
The nonprofit watchdog Campaign Legal Center filed a criticism with the Federal Election Commission against Santos on Monday, accusing the brand new lawmaker of violating campaign finance laws in his run for Congress.
Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican who was chosen as the subsequent chairman of the House Oversight Committee, recently said on Fox News that he’s “pretty confident” the House Ethics Committee will investigate Santos.
The larger federal probe appears to focus, partially, on a loan of over $700,000 Santos made to his campaign.
The headaches facing the campaign are even broader. The Federal Election Commission flagged greater than a dozen donations in letters to the Santos campaign over the course of the 2022 election cycle, including two made by a Chinese immigrant named Cheng Gao, who was a prolific donor to former President Donald Trump’s first presidential run. The commission said it appears Gao exceeded the legal limit for campaign donations, as he gave $11,200 to the Santos campaign through the primary season, records show.
Gao couldn’t be reached for comment.
The odd behavior includes payments to the campaign fundraiser who was said to impersonate McCarthy’s chief of staff on fundraising calls. The campaign paid Sam Miele almost $50,000 for fundraising consulting during Santos’ failed 2020 run for Congress, and over $42,000 through the successful 2022 cycle, FEC records show.
Miele’s payments from the Santos campaign through the 2022 midterms went through an obscure limited liability company called The One57 Group, in line with FEC records. Florida business records show that Miele is the manager of the corporate. The ultimate $5,995 payment to the Miele-led company got here in January 2022, in line with an FEC filing.
Santos’ lawyer Murray said that Miele’s company was “let go a couple of yr ago.”
An archived version of the corporate’s website boasts clients in Latest York, Washington, Florida and California. Yet, FEC records indicate that the The One57 Group has picked up only a few political clients because it was first formed in Latest Jersey in early 2021.
Republican Tina Forte, who ran unsuccessfully against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., paid The One57 Group $500 in 2021 for what the filing calls “campaign consulting,” in line with an FEC filing. A search through federal and state campaign finance records in Latest York, Florida and California shows that the corporate has seen only just a few payments from another political operation apart from the Santos and Forte campaigns.
The One57 Group received only two payments in 2021 totaling $9,965 from the Rise NY PAC, a GOP-aligned group, in line with Latest York state campaign finance records. Intrater donated $80,000 to the PAC over the course of the 2022 election cycle, state records show.
The payments to The One57 Group are only a fraction of the moves made by the Santos campaign that experts said were, on the very least, bizarre.