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A staffer on the George Santos campaign is accused of impersonating Kevin McCarthy's chief of staff in order to secure donations.
The fabulist Republican congressman representing New York's Third District is not the only person associated with the George Santos campaign who allegedly lied about themselves while seeking donations. A member of Santos's political team impersonated Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy's chief of staff, CNBC reports.
Rich Republican donors fielded calls and email messages from Dan Meyer, McCarthy's chief of staff, over the last two election cycles, asking for money to help Santos get elected. Or so they thought.
A wealthy financier who donated to the Santos campaign told CNBC that the person calling was actually Sam Miele, a staffer employed by Santos to raise money for the campaign.
It's unclear how McCarthy will react to the new developments because he has been silent on the matter since the revelations began to unspool several weeks ago.
In the lead-up to last week's 15 votes to elect McCarthy to the speakership position, the Republican leader had gone to great lengths not to do anything that would lose him votes, including Santos's.
In need of every vote he could get, McCarthy appeared to ignore the accusations against Santos, and during the rounds of voting, Santos was seen on the House floor hobnobbing with influential far right-wing Republicans like Reps. Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Santos voted for McCarthy.
The latest development comes as Santos was officially made the subject of an ethics complaint filed by the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center with the Federal Elections Commission on Monday, which alleges a wide range of campaign finance violations.
The accusations include hiding sources of income, lying about campaign expenditures, and using campaign funds to pay for personal costs.
Santos has yet to respond to reporters' questions. Instead, since arriving on Capitol Hill, Santos has continually dodged reporters, often trying to escape their questions by running away from them through the corridors of Congress.
After being revealed to have made up facts about himself, Santos admitted to lying about his heritage, professional experience, education, wealth, and other basic details of his biography.
Local and federal prosecutors in New York have acknowledged opening investigations into possible crimes associated with Santos's lies.
Likewise, officials in Brazil have reopened a criminal investigation into old fraud charges involving Santos.
A month before his 20th birthday, Santos entered a small clothing store in the Brazilian city of Niteroi outside Rio de Janeiro and bought close to $700 worth of goods using a stolen checkbook and fake name, according to court records reviewed byThe New York Times.
Santos admitted to the fraud in August 2009 on a Brazilian social media site. The following year, accompanied by his mother, he told authorities that he used checks stolen from his mom's former boss to buy clothes.
In September 2011, a Brazillian judge approved the charges and ordered Santos to enter a response, which he failed to do, having moved to the United States by October, the Times reports.
Despite the admissions Santos made in official proceedings in Brazil previously, Santos recently denied being involved in criminal activity.
"I am not a criminal here -- not here or in Brazil or any jurisdiction in the world," he told the New York Post when asked about his lies.
