McCarthy expects probe into Santos

from Roslyn 2023_02_10

‘The Little Mermaid Jr’ show

Speaker says he anticipates questions about rep to be answered by ethics committee

BY ROBERT PELAEZ

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said on Tuesday he anticipates Congress’ Ethics Committee to conduct a probe into the allegations made against U.S. Rep. George Santos.

“There are questions, I expect them to get answered,” McCarthy told CNN.

McCarthy previously told reporters that the Ethics Committee had launched an investigation into Santos before an aide for the speaker confrmed no investigation has begun.

Last month, McCarthy told reporters Santos would go before the Congressional Ethics Committee “if there are concerns” about his behavior and would be “held accountable exactly as anybody else” in Congress would be if something is found to be wrong.

The potential committee probe would be the latest in a string of investigations launched and complaints fled against the newly-elected congressman who has lied about his personal, professional and fnancial background.

The FBI is currently investigating Santos’ role in allegedly scamming a homeless, disabled veteran out of thousands of dollars that would have been used to care for the man’s service dog.

Richard Osthof said that he met Santos, who introduced himself as Anthony Devolder, in 2016 while living in a tent on the side of a New Jersey highway.

Osthof’s service dog, Sapphire, was sufering from a life-threatening stomach tumor, treatment for which would cost $3,000, the veteran told Patch.

A veterinary technician told Osthof to use Friends of Pets United, a pet charity headed up by Santos under the Anthony Devolder alias.

Osthof said he never saw any of the funds after a GoFundMe was set up and subsequently deleted once it got close to hitting the $3,000 goal.

Sapphire died in January 2017, he said.

“I went through two bouts of seriously considering suicide, but thinking about leaving her without me saved my life,” Osthof told Patch. “I loved that dog so much, I inhaled her last breaths when I had her euthanized.”

Osthof said Santos informed him that the money would not be used for Sapphire, but rather “for other dogs.”

Santos faces a pair of new complaints fled by a watchdog group and two of his Democratic colleagues from New York.

The Campaign Legal Center, a nonproft organization that aims to advance democracy through the law, questioned the newly elected congressman’s infux of wealth after he reported a salary of $55,000 in 2020, which rose to $750,000 in 2022 and $1 million to $5 million in dividends.

The organization also called the congressman’s $705,000 loan to his campaign into question, claiming he falsifed reports on nearly 40 expenditure flings under $200.

The center fled the complaint with the Federal Election Commission and to the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice several weeks ago.

Democratic U.S. Reps. Ritchie Torres and Daniel Goldman fled a complaint with the House Ethics Committee several weeks ago for allegedly violating the Ethics in Government Act, saying the Republican must be held accountable for deceiving voters and Congress.

The Ethics in Government Act, ofcials said, was created to “preserve and promote the integrity of public ofcials and institutions,” which Torres and Goldman believe Santos has failed to adhere to. The two described fnancial reports submitted in 2020 and 2022 as “sparse and perplexing” in the complaint.