Rep. George Santos (R-NY) revealed on Tuesday that the mysterious half-million dollars he had reported to the Federal Election Commission as a personal loan of his personal funds to his political campaign didn’t actually come from his personal funds.
According to The Daily Beast, “Santos’ political operation filed a flurry of amended campaign finance reports, telling the feds, among other things, that a $500,000 loan he gave to his campaign didn’t, in fact, come from his personal funds as he’d previously claimed.”
“Another amended filing on Tuesday disclosed that a $125,000 ‘loan from the candidate’ in late October also did not come from his ‘personal funds,’ but like the $500,000 question, did not revel the source of the funds, when the loan was due, or what entity, if any, backed the money.”
Now, many people are asking: where did that money come from?
Santos is not saying.
Reacting to the controversy, Brendan Fischer, deputy executive director of government watchdog Documented and a campaign finance expert, told The Daily Beast: “Santos’ campaign might have unchecked the ‘personal funds of candidate’ box, but it is still reporting that the $500,000 came from Santos himself. If the ‘loan from candidate’ didn’t actually come from the candidate, then Santos should come clean and disclose where the money really came from. Santos can’t uncheck a box and make his legal problems go away.”
An image o the FEC form submitted by Santos was shared on Twitter by Robert Maguire from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Oh….double whoa.
Let's play a little game. This $500k is the largest loan George Santos supposedly gave to his campaign. Notice a difference between the new one (LEFT) and the original (RIGHT)?
(Hint: look at the checkbox marked "personal funds of the candidate) pic.twitter.com/b5Nf93moHZ
— Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) January 24, 2023
