NEW YORK — An unrepentant Rep.-elect George Santos, who remains on track to be sworn in next week, faced growing legal scrutiny in recent days, as his web of known falsehoods expanded to include a misleading claim that his mother died on 9/11.
Over two days, the state attorney general’s office, the Nassau County district attorney’s office and the Queens district attorney’s office all signaled that they had set Santos in their sights.
Perhaps most alarmingly for the incoming congressman, federal prosecutors have started to comb through his public filings, ABC News reported. Santos appears to have swiftly built personal wealth despite a history of debt and financial troubles.
“Once the U.S. attorney gets involved, that is the dominant player,” said Linda Lacewell, a former federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, adding that Santos could have a “big problem.”
Santos, a 34-year-old Republican, admitted this week to misrepresenting areas of his biography including his education, professional experience and property ownership, after The New York Times published a bombshell report last week examining holes in his resume.
“He has made himself a giant target by uttering all these admitted lies about his background that have caused the eyes of the world — and most importantly the eyes of law enforcement — to focus on him,” Lacewell said. “He needs his lawyer on speed dial.”
Experts said falsified campaign filings could be the likeliest source of charges, and that the level of legal peril facing Santos would hinge on the sweep of his fabrications.
Santos also claimed that his grandparents “survived the Holocaust” as Ukrainian Jewish refugees from Belgium who changed their surname to survive. The statement contradicts evidence from Santos’s family trees compiled by genealogy websites, records on Jewish refugees and interviews with multiple genealogists.
