George Anthony Devolder Santos

Santos was elected to the U.S. Congress in Nov. 2022, defeating Robert Zimmerman to represent New York's 3rd congressional district. In 2020, he ran against Tom Suozzi for that seat and was defeated.

On Dec. 19, 2022, the New York Times ran an article alleging numerous false claims by Santos. Among them:

- That he earned a bachelor's degree from Baruch College and a master's from New York University. Neither school has a record of these degrees.

- That he worked for Goldman Sachs and CitiGroup. Neither company has a record of his employment.

- That he founded a tax-exempt charity called Friends of Pets United.The Internal Revenue Service has no record of a registered charity with that name.

- That a company he owned lost four employees in the 2016 massacre in an Orlando nightclub.

The Times also reported that Santos was charged with check fraud in Brazil in 2008 and that a 2017 fundraising event held by the Friends of Pets United never gave any proceeds to its intended recipient.

After winning election to Congress, Santos was one of several incoming House Republicans to attend a Manhattan gala that featured Republican politicians alongside white nationalists, conspiracy theorists, and other extreme right-wing figures. At the event were Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, extreme-right commentators Jack Posobiec and Peter Brimelow, and members of the Freedom Party of Austria and Alternative for Germany, two right-wing European parties with an authoritarian heritage.

Santos has aligned himself with Donald Trump. He has called police brutality a "made-up concept" and opposes access to abortion.

On January 6, 2021, Santos attended President Trump's "Stop the Steal" rally at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. and he described Trump as "energized" and "at his full awesomeness" that day. Santos later said he was "never on Capitol grounds" on January 6. But he was captured on video saying that he had written a "nice check to a law firm" to bail January 6 arrestees out of jail, saying: "Don't want to publicize it, but pretty adamant about that. Imagine breaking into your own house and being charged for trespassing."

Santos is openly gay. He has described himself at various points as a nonobservant Jew and as a Catholic.