George Anthony Devolder Santos, born on July 22, 1988, is an American politician who has been serving as the U.S. representative for New York's 3rd congressional district since 2023.
A member of the Republican Party, Santos was elected to Congress in 2022 after previously running against incumbent Thomas Suozzi in 2020. He made history as the first openly LGBT member elected to Congress as a Republican.
However, Santos has been embroiled in controversy due to numerous false or dubious claims about his biography, work history, criminal record, financial status, ethnicity, religion, and other matters. These claims, which were made both in public and in private, were widely reported by news outlets six weeks after his election.
A closer examination of Santos' self-published biography revealed that large parts of it appeared to be fabricated, including claims about his ancestry, education, employment, charity work, property ownership, and crimes of which he claimed to be a victim. Santos has since admitted to lying about his education and employment.
In addition to these fabricated claims, Santos has also faced legal troubles. In 2010, he confessed to committing check fraud in Brazil in 2008, but failed to appear in court in 2011, leaving the case unresolved. Brazilian authorities revived the case in late 2022, and on March 24, 2023, it was announced that Santos would plead guilty in that case.
Furthermore, there have been several judgments against Santos in the United States concerning eviction and personal debt cases. In 2022, he was accused of failing to pay thousands of dollars in judgments from the 2010s, to which he admitted.
Santos was also charged in 2017 in the United States for theft by deception regarding bad checks to dog breeders, but the charges were dropped, and the record expunged in 2021 after the signatures on the checks did not match his.
