George Santos moans about the ‘enormous inquisition’ into his finances

Lying Rep. George Santos on Thursday complained about the interest in his personal finances and what he called the “enormous inquisition” into where he obtained more than $700,000 to lend to his campaign.

The embattled Long Island Republican made the comment during an interview with FOX 5 New York reporter Jodi Goldberg, who probed Santos on the loan as well as money missing from his campaign filings and several campaign expenses reported to be a penny below the level requiring preservation of receipts. 

“I don’t know about any missing money.  That’s news to me,” Santos said when asked about more than $365,000 in campaign expenses for which he failed to give any details on at all in filings with the Federal Election Commission.

Santos, 34, also claimed that the $705,000 personal loan he made to his campaign, which has reportedly piqued the interest of federal investigators, was “100% legitimately my money” and originated from his “business practices.”

“I continue to not understand why there is this enormous inquisition and inquiry into my business practices and the legitimacy of it.  I’ve operated honestly,” Santos claimed.

As for the slew of $199.99 expenses listed on his campaign finance disclosures, Santos argued that they may have been “clerical errors” and that he wants the paperwork “rectified immediately.”

“I don’t believe those were spent,” Santos said of the expenses. 

“I think these are either clerical errors or system errors that just need to be addressed. So, I strongly can tell you $199 were not charges – not to the best of my knowledge, at least not those many times,” he added. 

Santos’ former campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks, abruptly resigned her position last month as questions about New York’s 3rd District representative mounted.  

In a letter to the Santos campaign sent earlier this week, the FEC demanded that a new treasurer be named, warning that a failure to do so would prevent the campaign from raising or spending money.

“It is required that for any committee to conduct any business, they must have an active treasurer,” Jaime Amrhein, an assistant branch chief at the FEC, wrote in a Tuesday letter to Santos’s campaign. “Failure to appoint a treasurer will result in the inability of the committee to accept contributions and make disbursements.”

Santos claimed during the interview Thursday that he has obtained a new treasurer. 

“We have a new treasurer, we’ve engaged a new firm,” he said. 

The House Ethics Committee opened an investigation into Santos earlier this month after receiving complaints over his admitted fabrications about his background, education, religion, and charitable work. 

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said last month that Santos “will be held accountable” if the Ethics Committee finds he did anything wrong. 

Santos praised himself Thursday for the “fantastic work” he and his colleagues have done so far in the 118th Congress.  

“I have many allies in Congress and we’ve done fantastic work together.  I’m very excited,” Santos said. “From the moment we come back from being in recess I’m going to be introducing some original bills and I think the district is going to appreciate them because they are really district-focused bills.”

When asked if he plans to run for re-election he answered, “I don’t know yet.”