The DOJ reportedly requested the FEC to not take motion towards Santos whereas prosecutors conduct a legal probe.
A pair of Mom Jones journalists revealed late Friday that greater than a dozen folks recognized as high donors to GOP Congressman George Santos’ marketing campaign who collectively account for over tens of hundreds of {dollars} raised from particular person donors in 2020 “don’t appear to exist.”
That revelation got here as The Washington Submit reported Friday night time that the U.S. Division of Justice (DOJ) requested the Federal Election Fee (FEC) “to carry off on any enforcement motion” towards the first-term New York Republican “as prosecutors conduct a parallel legal probe, in accordance with two folks aware of the request.”
Since his November win — which adopted an unsuccessful 2020 run — Santos has confronted intense scrutiny and pressure to resign over his mounting “lies and misdeeds,” from dishonesty about his schooling, employment, household, faith, and residence; to considerations about his net worth soaring; to claims of fraud in Brazil and the United States.
The Mom Jones reporters tried to contact “dozens of probably the most beneficiant donors” to Santos’ 2020 marketing campaign. Whereas a number of folks confirmed their contributions, the investigation additionally uncovered numerous “questionable donations, which account for greater than $30,000 of the $338,000” raised from people that 12 months.
Because the journal detailed:
Throughout Santos’ first run for Congress, solely about 45 folks maxed out to his marketing campaign through the major and basic elections. In 9 situations, Mom Jones discovered no approach to contact the donor as a result of no individual by that title now lives on the handle listed on the experiences the Santos marketing campaign filed with the FEC. None had ever contributed to a candidate earlier than sending Santos the utmost quantity allowed, in accordance with FEC data. Nor have any of those donors contributed since. The Santos marketing campaign’s filings checklist the career of every of those donors as “retired.”
Two different donors who contributed $1,500 and $2,000, respectively, have been listed in Santos’ FEC filings as retirees residing at addresses that don’t exist. One was named Rafael Da Silva — which occurs to be the title of a Brazilian soccer participant.
Another suspicious donation was attributed to a woman who shares the name of a New York doctor who has made dozens of donations to Democrats. The Manhattan address listed for this donation does not exist. The doctor did not respond to a request for comment.
The outlet noted that “Santos did not respond to a detailed list of questions Mother Jones sent to his lawyer and his congressional office that included names of donors whose identities could not be verified.”
Highlighting the report on Twitter Saturday, Brendan R. Quinn of the Campaign Legal Center (CLC) shared a “general reminder (that is apparently needed) that it is illegal to donate money using a false name or the name of someone else.”
As Frequent Goals reported earlier this month, on the identical day that the CLC filed a criticism with the Federal Election Fee relating to Santos’ 2022 marketing campaign, the group Residents United filed complaints with the DOJ, FEC, and Workplace of Congressional Ethics (OCE).
The Submit on Friday framed the DOJ Public Integrity Part’s request that the FEC chorus from taking motion towards the congressman and switch over any related paperwork as “the clearest signal to this point that federal prosecutors are analyzing Santos’ marketing campaign funds.”
Because the newspaper defined:
The FEC ordinarily complies with DOJ requests to carry off on enforcement. These requests come up from a 1977 memorandum of understanding between the companies that addresses their overlapping regulation enforcement tasks.
“Principally they don’t need two units of investigators tripping over one another,” stated David M. Mason, a former FEC commissioner. “And so they don’t need something that the FEC, which is a civil company, does to probably complicate their legal case.”
The request “signifies there’s an energetic legal investigation” analyzing points that overlap with complaints towards Santos earlier than the FEC, stated Brett Kappel, a marketing campaign finance lawyer at D.C.-based Harmon, Curran, Spielberg & Eisenberg.
In accordance with the Submit, Santos and his lawyer didn’t reply whereas an FEC consultant stated the company “can’t touch upon enforcement” and a DOJ spokesperson declined to weigh in.
Nevertheless, critics of the embattled congressman — who can also be being investigated by the places of work of Democratic New York Legal professional Basic Letitia James and the Republican district attorneys in Nassau and Queens counties — had a lot to say.
“Mr. Santos has one existential motive to stay in workplace: to realize sufficient leverage to safe a plea discount with the U.S. lawyer,” said Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), who has urged the Republican to resign and advocated for federal investigations into him.
