DOJ Alerts Launch of George Santos Felony Probe After Telling FEC To Stand Down: Report
The Department of Justice has instructed the Federal Election Commission to carry off on any enforcement motion in opposition to Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) within the DOJ’s clearest sign but that it’s conducting its personal prison investigation into Santos’ marketing campaign funds, The Washington Post reported Friday.
The Justice Division additionally requested the FEC to supply any related paperwork for an investigation, sources instructed the Publish.
Santos has issued a plethora of lies about his heritage, household, schooling and work expertise. He has ignored requires his resignation and has claimed he merely “embellished” his résumé.
Adjustments this week on his marketing campaign finance varieties additionally indicated {that a} $700,000 donation that had been recognized as his personal private mortgage did not come from Santos. That leaves a big thriller concerning the supply of the funds.
Santos’ marketing campaign committee instructed federal regulators on Wednesday that it had hired a new treasurer, however the man it named stated he had not accepted the job.
Santos has stated he was making $55,000 a year before he launched the Devolder Group in 2021. Funding for the mysterious firm — which had no web site and was dissolved not lengthy after it was began — is murky. However Santos claimed it rocketed his salary to $750,000 (with as much as $10 million in dividends).
In a separate investigation, the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday conducted interviews on Santos’ function within the funding agency Harbor Metropolis Capital, which shut down in 2021 after the SEC accused it of working a “traditional Ponzi scheme,” the Publish reported.
FEC investigators will seemingly honor the Justice Division’s request and step again from their civil investigation to let the DOJ conduct a prison probe, the Publish reported.
The DOJ back-off request “signifies there’s an active criminal investigation,” marketing campaign finance lawyer Brett Kappel instructed the Publish.
David Mason, a former FEC commissioner, instructed the newspaper: “They don’t need two units of investigators tripping over one another. And so they don’t need something that the FEC, which is a civil company, does to probably complicate their prison case.”
Take a look at the complete Washington Publish story right here.