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While testifying under oath in King County Superior Court in Washington State in 2017, the now Republican lawmaker told the judge that the defendant, Gustavo Trelha, was an old family friend who knew his parents, and that he would help the man get an Airbnb while he was out on bail, according to the outlet.
Santos, whose 3rd District represents parts of Nassau County and Queens, also told the judge that he was an aspiring politician and worked for Goldman Sachs, Politico reports.
“You work for Goldman Sachs in New York?” the outlet quoted King County Judge Sean O’Donnell as asking, to which Santos reportedly answered, “Yup.”
Santos has since admitted that he lied about working for the company, and about attending Baruch College, in the leadup to the November 2022 election in which he defeated Democrat Robert Zimmerman.
Trelha was later deported to Brazil after pleading guilty to credit card fraud in a scheme that involved “skimming” data from ATMs near Seattle’s tourist-heavy Pike Place Market. He told Politico that Santos lied in court about their relationship and that they actually met through a Facebook group in 2016.
Appearing on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” on the United Kingdom’s TalkTV, Monday, Feb. 20, Santos maintained several claims that have come under fire from fact-checkers, including that his mother was inside the South Town of the World Trade Center during the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, despite the New York Times reporting that she wasn’t even in the country at the time.
He claimed that he “lost four employees” in the Pulse nightclub mass shooting in June 2016 even though none of the 49 victims ever worked at the companies named in Santos’ biography.
He also claimed that he had helped save 2,500 cats and dogs through his animal rescue charity, Friends of Pets United, even though there's no record of the organization or existing social media accounts.
Santos is now facing numerous investigations into his personal and campaign finances, including from the House Ethics Committee, the Nassau County District Attorney's Office, and the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York.
A Siena College poll released Monday, Feb. 27, found that 66 percent of registered voters in New York think Santos should resign from Congress, up from 59 percent in January.
Click here for the full story from Politico.
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