Former Rep. Lee Zeldin announced on Monday that he’s starting a recent political motion committee without Nancy Marks, the longtime treasurer he shared with disgraced Rep. George Santos.
“We will probably be announcing a recent federal PAC that’s being stood up straight away utilizing a unique treasurer,” Zeldin (R-NY) said on the Recent York State Conservative Party Political Motion Conference in Albany, Recent York.
Marks notified the Federal Election Commission last week that she had resigned from Santos’ (R-NY) campaign and his affiliated political committees. Her announcement got here every week after the Santos campaign named a substitute who claims he didn’t conform to take the job amid the invention of various campaign finance irregularities that appear to have caught the attention of federal investigators.
“The treasurer has something like near 200 different accounts,” Zeldin said, based on Politico, distancing himself from Marks.
“Our interaction has been through Marks’ daughters,” Zeldin added, acknowledging that his children attend the identical Long Island school as Marks.
Marks has served as Zeldin’s campaign treasurer since his 2010 election to represent parts of Suffolk County within the Recent York state Senate. She was recently listed because the treasurer for his failed 2022 campaign for governor of Recent York.
Marks didn’t reply to The Post’s requests for comment.
Santos’ campaign finance disclosures have come under scrutiny since he admitted to The Post in December that he lied about almost his entire resume while on the campaign trail.
One watchdog group called the campaign’s quite a few expenditures recorded as costing $199.99 — a penny below the $200 threshold for FEC itemization — “statistically implausible” and an indication of “deliberately falsified” reporting.
A Queens-based relative of the Long Island Republican was “dumbfounded” when told by Mother Jones last week that they were listed as having made two $2,900 donations to the Santos campaign, denying that they had made the donations.
Santos’ team amended several campaign finance documents last month to indicate that a $500,000 loan he made to his 2022 congressional campaign didn’t come from “personal funds of the candidate.” It’s unknown where those funds he lent his campaign got here from.
The flurry of activity by the campaign got here as a lawyer for Thomas Datwyler, the person whom the Santos campaign listed as its recent treasurer last month, said that Santos’ team named him treasurer without his authorization.
The Justice Department has reportedly asked the FEC to not pursue enforcement motion against Santos because it continues its criminal investigation into the disgraced lawmaker.
The guidance sent by the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section signals that federal prosecutors could also be centering their probe into Santos on his campaign funds.
