CNN
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First Representative George Santosto who is being investigated for finances and indiscretions, and faces new questions about the accuracy of campaign reporting submitted during his failed 2020 congressional bid.
Someone named Steven Berger, for example, is described in New York Republican campaign materials as having contributed $2,500 on July 31, 2020.
But the address assigned to Berger—on Brandt Road in Brawley, California—belongs to William Brandt, a respected California farmer.
“It’s my address, not my check,” Brandt told CNN late Monday afternoon.
He said no one with the name Santos on file had ever lived at that address. “I built the house 40 years ago,” he said.
“I wouldn’t give him a dime,” Brandt said of Santos.
Mother Jones Magazine first reported Berger’s donation as part of a Monday story, detailing failed efforts to identify donors listed as big money contributors to Santos’ first congressional campaign.
CNN reached out to Santos’ congressional office, his personal attorney, and Nancy Marks, who served as his treasurer during the 2020 campaign and his successful 2022 bid to the US House of Representatives.
The federal attorney general’s office is investigating Santos’ finances, and he continues to face countless questions about his personal finances, campaign ramifications, and repeated falsehoods about his biography and biography. As those questions mount, he has sought to distance himself from his campaign’s dealings with federal election regulators, telling CNN last week that he has not “touched” those records.
He also resisted calls for the resignation of some of his fellow New York Republicans.
Last year, Santos flipped a Democratic-held seat on Long Island to help Republicans gain a slim majority in the House of Representatives. House Republican leaders largely supported him during the investigations, saying they did not want to overturn the will of his constituents.
But on Monday afternoon, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy invited Santos to his office to “check in,” according to a senior Republican source with knowledge of the meeting, and asked Santos when he planned to do so. He has spoken publicly about some of the controversy surrounding him – something Santos claims he plans to do.
McCarthy confirmed to CNN that he was the one who called Santos and invited him to meet, but declined to answer any further questions about their meeting, including whether he berated Santos or asked about his plans to address the public.
Santos declined to discuss the nature of the meeting.
I had a private conversation with the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. That’s it, it was a private conversation, so there’s nothing to say about that conversation.”
He tried to downplay it, saying, “Many members attend meetings with the leadership on various topics.”
