Concerns over Santos’ backstory were known prior to the election

Considerations over Rep. George Santos’ backstory turned louder over the summer season and into the autumn marketing campaign season, and points surrounding the not too long ago elected Republican congressman from New York had not been a secret, a GOP supply informed CNN on Friday.

When it turned clearer that Santos had an opportunity at profitable his New York district, individuals talked extra about how his backstory didn’t add up, the supply stated.

There was trepidation amongst consultants, donors and different Republicans – together with these in Washington – that what Santos was saying about himself wasn’t correct and that his biography didn’t line up, the supply stated. There had additionally been an expectation that some form of main story would drop within the press earlier than the election, the supply stated. However that story by no means got here.

Amongst those that expressed considerations, in keeping with a supply, was Dan Conston, president of the Congressional Management Fund PAC and an in depth affiliate of now-Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Conston contacted lawmakers and donors, sharing his considerations about Santos, the supply stated.

A consultant for the Congressional Management Fund declined to remark.

Amongst potential donors, one one that went to a Santos fundraising occasion in March 2022 informed CNN that he instantly may inform Santos was not being truthful. Santos, he stated, boasted about his time at Goldman Sachs, promised to stress China and deliberate to require the US to default on its debt to not pay China – one thing that anybody who labored in finance would know to be a catastrophic mistake.

A separate donor who now feels conned stated he gave substantial quantities of cash to Santos, who he felt got here throughout as “possibly” an embellisher. “He appeared like a novice however I believed his coronary heart was in the correct place,” the supply stated.

The revelations come because the freshman congressman faces rising stress to resign after he lied and misrepresented his academic, work and household historical past. CNN’s KFILE additionally reported that Santos had stated an organization later accused of operating a “Ponzi scheme” was “100% professional” when it was accused by a possible buyer of fraud in 2020, greater than a yr earlier than it was sued by the US Securities and Trade Fee. Joseph Murray, an lawyer for Santos, informed CNN in an e-mail that Santos was unaware of wrongdoing at that firm.

Santos has admitted to “embellishing” his resume, however maintains he’s “not a felony.”

The New York Instances first reported particulars of what Republicans knew about Santos earlier than the election.

In accordance with the Instances, a few of the GOP associates helping Santos’ marketing campaign had been alarmed by the findings of a background research on Santos carried out by a Washington analysis agency, prompting them to advise him to finish his bid. Santos had permitted his marketing campaign to run the research in late 2021 as he prepped his run for New York’s third Congressional District, the Instances reported Friday.

In accordance with the Instances, it stays unclear who else – if anybody – realized concerning the background research’s findings on the time, or whether or not get together leaders had been made conscious of the knowledge.

Earlier this week, Nassau County GOP leaders insisted they’d no indication that Santos had misled them earlier than The New York Instances broke the story after the election.

CNN has reached out to Santos’ lawyer for touch upon the Instances reporting. Murray informed the Instances that “it could be inappropriate to reply attributable to ongoing investigations.”