In a city that virtually floats on the uplift from inflated resumes, Representative-elect George Santos (R-N.Y.) is a standout. The incoming freshman is accused of a dizzying array of false claims, ranging from being Jewish to being a graduate of leading colleges. A host of congressional, state and federal investigations are in the works.
The problem is that, for the most part, he is accused of something that is no crime in Congress: lying.
Indeed, if lying were criminal, the House would be hard pressed to assemble a quorum outside of a federal penitentiary.
More practically, Santos has constitutional defenses to any effort to bar him from taking his seat to represent New York’s 3rd Congressional District.
Santos, 34, appears to have been a virtual false-claims machine.
He claimed he was Jewish and that his maternal grandparents were European “Holocaust refugees.” (They actually were from Brazil, and he actually is Catholic.) He claimed to have graduated from Baruch College in 2010 and to have attended New York University. He claimed to have lost four employees in the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla., in 2016. He claimed he worked for Citigroup and for Goldman Sachs on Wall Street.
None of that appears true — and that is only a partial list.
Now Santos is the subject of possible investigation in Congress as well as state and federal investigations. While the federal investigation is reportedly looking at his finances, the other investigations appear to be premised...
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