GOP Rep. George Santos of New York, who recently made headlines after confessing that he lied about his biography, is facing new challenges as Republicans are calling on him to resign and Former GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger's petition that seeks to get enough support for their agenda.
On top of mounting pressure from his fellow Republicans, it has been revealed that Santos has deeper ties than previously known to a businessman who cultivated close relations with a one-time Trump confidant and is the cousin of a Russian oligarch who has been sanctioned.
George Santos Pressured To Resign
Evidence found in video footage and court documents showed that Andrew Intrater and his wife each gave the maximum of $5,800 to the New York Republican's main campaign committee. They also provided tens of thousands of dollars more since 2020 to committees that were linked to the lawmaker.
Intrater's cousin was found to be Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian billionaire who was sanctioned by the United States government for his involvement in the Russian energy industry controversy. Furthermore, the relationship between Santos and Intrater goes further than just campaign contributions, as per the Washington Post.
Evidence taken from a privately made statement from Santos in 2020 and a court filing in 2021 in a lawsuit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission against Harbor City Capital, a Florida-based investment firm that Santos worked for more than a year, suggests that the New York lawmaker may have had a business relationship with Intrater.
The SEC filing also showed that Intrater placed hundreds of thousands of dollars into the Republican's one-time employer, which has been accused of running a Ponzi scheme. Neither Santos nor Intrater has responded to requests for comment regarding the matter and attorneys who represented the former also did not reply.
Santos' election victory helped the Republican Party achieve a narrow majority in the House of Representatives. He also apologized for what he called "resume embellishment" while pushing back against calls for his resignation.
Adam Kinzinger's Petition
However, Kinzinger, who was a member of the House Select Committee, started a petition to get Santos to resign from his post. He started the online petition on Thursday, which was the same day that Santos appeared on the podcast "War Room: Pandemic" with Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, according to Business Insider.
In the podcast, Santos said that he would resign only if more than 142,000 people, which was the number that he received from votes that elected him during the midterm elections, demanded him to do so.
The petition, which was on Kinzinger's Country First website, said that they were happy to deliver the requests to Santos' office. The former representative also promoted the petition in a Twitter post on Jan. 12, 2023.
On Saturday, a rally was held in front of the office for Congressional District 3 and included some Democrats and some Republicans. The lawmakers were united in their efforts to express their criticism of Santos. In a statement, one protester, Jody Kass, said that they were only focused on removing Santos from his position and making sure that they get a special election, said CBS News.
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