by Two New York Democratic lawmakers on Sunday called on Republican leaders to “openly cooperate” with all investigations into Rep. George Santos, the Republican who has confessed to fabricating much of his resume.
in a letter On Sunday, Reps. Dan Goldman and Ritchie Torres asked House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., House Republican Caucus Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik, RN.y., and Speaker of the Congressional Leadership Fund, Dan Conston, to “proactively and frankly cooperate with all future investigations into Mr. Santos, including the House Ethics Committee investigation that Chairman McCarthy confirmed this week.
“Further, we urge you to inform the American people of your knowledge of Mr. Santo’s deception network ahead of the election so that the public understands whether and to what extent he was complicit in Mr. Santos’ fraud of his voters.”
Your letter points to a recent New York Times report detailing Republican leadership’s knowledge of Santos’s false claims ahead of the November midterm elections.
The report expanded “on the degree to which each of you had at least some prior knowledge of Mr. Santos’s lies,” Goldman and Torres wrote. “Unfortunately, even now, after eight other Republican members of Congress have called for Mr. Santos’ resignation, you have refused to make any public comment on Mr. Santos’s fraudulent candidacy, nor have you shared with the public your understanding of the candidacy of Mr. Santos. flagrant deceit and lies before the elections”.
NBC News has not independently verified the Times reports.
Democratic lawmakers wrote that Stefanik remained a top supporter of Santos during his campaign and that one of his top advisers helped his campaign even after many staffers reportedly resigned after the “vulnerability study.” .
“It is one thing for a candidate like Mr. Santos to induce voters to support him based on a web of lies,” Goldman and Torres wrote. Santos lies during the campaign and he chose to be an accomplice.”
Last week, Goldman and Torres filed a complaint with the House Ethics Committee against Santos, requesting that the panel launch an investigation into his financial disclosure reports and alleging that he violated the Ethics in Government Act with his “poor” reporting. and bewildering.” They said he failed to file “timely disclosure reports” for his most recent campaign and that his public statements “contradicted some information” in his 2022 financial disclosure.
Calls from House Republicans for Santos to resign increased last week after state Republican leaders and lawmakers in New York said he should step aside. However, McCarthy, who leads a slim Republican majority in the House, has not joined in calling for Santos’ resignation.
“He has a long way to go to earn trust, but all I know is that the Constitution applies equally to all Americans,” McCarthy told reporters on Thursday. “The voters in your district have elected you. He is sitting. He is part of the Republican Conference. There are concerns with him, so he will go before Ethics. If something is found to be wrong, he will be held accountable exactly as anyone else in this body would be.”
Santos has held his ground so far. He told NBC News on Thursday that “if 142 people ask me to resign, I will resign.” He later clarified that he was referring to the more than 142,000 people who elected him in the November race in New York’s 3rd Congressional District. Santos said he would be in Congress “until those same 142,000 people tell me they don’t want me.”
