He wouldn’t … would he?
Lying Long Island GOP Rep. George Santos filed paperwork to run for re-election Tuesday, despite a federal investigation into his campaign’s finances and a House ethics probe stemming in part from his fibs about his background.
Santos, 34, quietly submitted his statement of candidacy for New York’s 3rd Congressional District to the Federal Election Commission, amid ongoing calls to resign from his fellow lawmakers.
The congressman made no official mention of the filings and a spokeswoman for his office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Santos’ 2024 campaign had accrued more than $5,000 in donations, forcing him to announce his candidacy by a Tuesday deadline under FEC rules.
Santos’ office has said he is “fully cooperating” with the House investigation after he admitted to The Post this past December that he was guilty of “embellishing” his resume during his 2022 campaign, including telling voters he graduated from the prestigious Horace Mann School and held degrees from Baruch College and New York University.
He also claimed that he worked for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, but later told The Post that was a “poor choice of words” because he “never worked directly” for either.
Santos also lied that his mother was Jewish and his grandparents escaped the Nazis during World War II, only to admit months after the fact that he is “clearly Catholic.”
“I never claimed to be Jewish,” he told The Post on Dec. 26. “I am Catholic. Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I was ‘Jew-ish.’”
The House Ethics Committee voted unanimously Feb. 28 to launch an ethics investigation into Santos to determine whether he failed to disclose required information on House forms, violated conflict of interest laws and sexually harassed a short-term member of his own staff.
A former office assistant to Santos had complained to the House Ethics Committee and the United States Capitol Police that the congressman grabbed his groin and invited him home after being hired in January.
New York Democratic Reps. Ritchie Torres and Dan Goldman filed the first of those ethics claims and have called on Santos to resign, saying the truth-challenged pol “misled voters in his District about his ethnicity, his religion, his education, and his employment and professional history.”
Torres on Thursday said in a statement that Santos’ “deception of the public is surpassed only by his self-deception.”
“Only a man as utterly delusional as George Santos would shamelessly file for re-election after disgracing himself with an endless stream of scandals.”
Goldman added that Santos’ “corruption knows no bounds.”
“George Santos defrauded the voters to secure a seat in Congress and now it appears that he wants those voters to pay for his legal defense for the numerous investigations into him,” he tweeted.
Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY) also introduced bills — which do not directly reference Santos — to bar House lawmakers from profiting off of their fame if they are later convicted of crimes related to it.
A separate FEC complaint was filed against Santos by the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, alleging campaign finance violations.
The congressman in his FEC filings apparently dodged reporting many expenses over the $200 disclosure limit, according to FACT.
New York Attorney General Letitia James and Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly have also announced probes into Santos’ conduct.
The fiasco of Santos’ campaign finances was supercharged this month by allegations that he was the mastermind of a 2017 credit card skimming operation, according to a sworn statement made by his former roommate. Santos last week said he was “innocent” of those charges.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has promised Congress that he will “take action” against Santos if the ethics probe finds evidence of serious wrongdoing.