You can add to the list of multiple investigations both here in
the United States and in Brazil that are already ongoing targeting
Representative Jorge Santos if that's his real name.
Well, now we have a new one.
The DOJ has reportedly opened a criminal investigation into George Santo's campaign
finances is not the only investigation that's currently looking into his campaign
finances.
But I think it's a good thing to investigate because while he has done
many reprehensible, unethical things, the clearest example that it
appears we have when it comes to a legal act is in his campaign finance.
Aside from the fraud case in Brazil, he did appear to have done that.
We'll see if Brazil ever gets justice.
For now though, there's a lot of questions about some of what he has claimed happened
when it came to this campaign finance and we wanna give the details.
So they say, in a sign that federal prosecutors are investigating represented
George Santos campaign finances.
The DOJ has reportedly asked the FEC to hold off on any enforcement actions
against the freshman member of Congress has become notorious for
literally everything.
Earlier this month, the campaign watchdog group campaign Legal Center asked the FEC
to investigate the $705,000 that Santos said he loaned his campaign
considering he declared an income of just $55,000 back in 2020.
The group wants the FEC to find out how he could have done so with his own funds.
So they were gonna investigate it, it appears now that the DOJ is asking
them to stop because they don't want dueling investigations perhaps.
That's no guarantee that they're actually going to find anything or
if they do that, there will be consequences or
if there are that those consequences will be significant.
But it is a really interesting question as to where the hell that money came from.
I don't know if maybe he just got lucky and
found some original vintage packs of Pokemon cards or
maybe he bought a couple of board apes and they really just, they went to the moon.
But other than that,
I don't know how you put together $700,000 in just a couple of years.
But what do you think?
>> I honestly have no notes other than this doesn't surprise me [LAUGH].
It's just one thing after another with him and
I have no idea how he would come up with that money.
But his alternative life in Brazil might explain it that we just don't know about.
>> True, maybe Jorge Santos only had $5000, but
maybe Anthony Devolder is just rolling in money, I don't know.
But here's an interesting added wrinkle and
some good work being done here by Mother Jones.
They tried to call his top donors and many don't seem to exist.
Federal campaign finance law, it's illegal to donate money using a false name or
the name of someone else.
Bear in mind in this case, it's other people who are being alleged to have used
fake names, not George Santos who also commonly uses fake names.
So these questionable donations that they're looking into account for
more than $30,000 of the $338,000 that his campaign raised from
individual donors in 2020 hasn't previously been looked into.
And they've talked to dozens of the most generous donors, but
they didn't, this is the campaign back in 2020 by the way.
So bear in mind as we go forward with the investigations,
there's multiple years in multiple countries worth of potential illegal acts,
but in any event where that money came from, who actually gave it?
Is it maybe just somebody not wanting the disclosure?
So they use a fake name,
is it is there a good reason that they wanted to hide the source of the money?
I don't know.
I don't know, but as of right now, we're obviously pretty sick of him, turns out
the people of his district super sick of him overwhelming bipartisan support for
his resignation inside of his congressional district.
And these numbers are just insane.
At least 78% of voters believe he should step down,
that includes 71% of Republicans and 89% of Democrats.
Now, I mean, one could make the point that maybe 71% isn't enough
the dude lied about his mom dying in the towers and he lied about the Holocaust.
How does 29% of your district Republicans still think,
it's a mixed bag or I don't have strong feelings.
How do you not have strong feelings at this point?
But I don't know if we've ever seen numbers this high in a bipartisan fashion,
at least for people to step down.
So that's something.
>> Yeah, it's it's incredible.
And I would hope that if Kevin McCarthy doesn't wanna ask him that people do when
the election comes around, but it's really disappointing when there is such
bipartisan support that Republicans won't really do the right thing.
But we know that bipartisan support doesn't really imply anything
about Republican Congress members stance on anything, so still not.
>> Yeah, and it doesn't necessarily imply anything about
what Kevin McCarthy would actually do.
It might be that in the end we just have to wait for
him to either be destroyed in a Republican, more likely destroyed in
a Republican primary in 2024, I don't think he'd get to the general election.
And that can be okay.
When Madison Cawthorn gets elected and spends two years ignoring his constituents
and punching dead trees or whatever and then he gets ousted.
That's good and Lauren Gobert almost lost in our first reelection bid.
But I don't know for me, it's not enough, I don't want him to have succeeded in
getting even two years, the idea like I can think of so many people and
I'm sure you can think of even more people, you know.
Who the country would be so enriched by them serving in elected office for
a couple of years.
The idea that he would get to finish out his term and
not be ejected from down the steps of the Capitol.
It doesn't seem like enough considering the severity of his lies.
>> Exactly, and it really just highlights a pattern with GOP and
Lauren Gobert Madison Cawthorn, George Santos,
it's all this radicalization of the right.
And the fact that the establishment GOP don't seem to be doing anything
to stop this radicalization implies some implicit or explicit support of it.
And I worry that George Santos having two more years and
Lauren Roberts skating by it furthers this narrative that the GOP are really starting
to hone Anna on the furthest left even though it seems like a small group.
And yeah, it's very disappointing.
>> Yeah, well we're gonna be watching.
I'm sure there's already tons of Republicans in his district that are just
waiting to run against him so that'll be coming in honestly not that much longer.
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