New York Republican congressman George Santos is in custody after surrendering to the authorities at a federal court on Long Island on Wednesday (10 May).
The representative, 34, who rose to national prominence over a string of exaggerations, lies, and irregularities related to his personal background and campaign finances, which he has dismissed as “résumé embellishment”, has been charged with seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives.
Mr Santos was elected to represent New York’s 3rd Congressional District in November’s midterms after defeating Democrat Robert Zimmerman but, just a month later, his triumph began to unravel when The New York Times published an investigation exposing a track record of untruths in his public statements.
Mr Santos faces accusations that he lied about the college he attended and about working for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, falsely said that his grandparents had survived the Holocaust and that 9/11 “claimed his mother’s life”, fabricated an animal charity to siphon money away from a military veteran’s dying dog and lied about losing four employees in the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, in 2016, among many other claims.
As outrage among Mr Santos’s constituents and fellow members of Congress grew, further revelations followed, one of the spiciest of which was that he had performed in drag at a number of Brazilian beauty pageants under the name “Kitara Ravache”.
Santos’ drag show past exposed
That accusation emerged in January when the veteran Brazilian drag performer Eula Rochard, 58, told Reuters that she had first encountered the individual she alleged was Mr Santos in 2005 at the first gay pride parade held in Niteroi, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro, saying she also remembered seeing him compete in a drag pageant in the same city three years later, much more flamboyantly attired on the second occasion.
“He’s changed a lot, but he was always a liar,” Ms Rochard said. “He was always such a dreamer.”
She said she came forward to make her allegation against Mr Santos after spotting him on television, excitedly telling her friends and then reacting to their disbelief by digging out an old photograph she insisted showed the pair of them together in costume, later posting it on Instagram.
In an interview with Maria Kabas of The Handbasket on Substack, Ms Rochard said: “I think I met him when he was around 16 or 17 years old… He used to hang out in my house while his mom was playing Bingo.
“The picture was taken in 2008 at the Pride Parade at Icarai Beach in Niteroi. George had disappeared for a little while, and then returned to Brazil with a lot of money, and that was about the same time when the picture was taken.”
Ms Rochard added that Mr Santos “did not have what it takes to be a professional” as a drag performer, adding that he “used to create stories, usually involving money – like that his dad was rich”.
Santos comes out with a denial...a day before admission
On 19 January, the politician took to Twitter to deny the story, writing: “The most recent obsession from the media claiming that I am a drag Queen or ‘performed’ as a drag Queen is categorically false.
“The media continues to make outrageous claims about my life while I am working to deliver results. I will not be distracted nor fazed by this.”
The matter was doubly awkward for Mr Santos because, although he was the first openly gay non-incumbent Republican to be elected to the House and had promised to “alway be an advocate” for the community, he had faced criticism over his seemingly-contradictory support for Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law banning the discussion of LGBT+ issues in the classrooms of the state’s schools.
Two days after the denial, Politico reported that a badly written Wikipedia page last updated in late April 2011 and dedicated to one “Anthony Devolder” – a known George Santos alias – containing biographical information matching his own, recorded that: “Anthony Devolder startted [sic] his ‘stage’ life at age 17 as an gay night club DRAG QUEEN and with that won sevral [sic] GAY ‘BEAUTY PAGENTS [sic].”
However garbled the entry, it appeared to give the game away.
A day later, the freshman representative was finally forced to confirm the truth himself when he returned from Capitol Hill to New York and was asked about it by a local ABC affiliate reporter and admitted his dual identity by saying: “I was young and I had fun at a festival – sue me for having a life.”
With the cat out of the bag, it was open season on Mr Santos for sketch comedians chomping at the bit to impersonate him.
Attempting to see the funny side, the congressman derided their efforts on Twitter, declaring: “I have now been enshrined in late night TV history with all these impersonations, but they are all TERRIBLE so far.
“Jon Lovitz is supposed to be one of the greatest comedians of all time and that was embarrassing – for him not me! These comedians need to step their game up.”
However, his scoffing only ended up drawing him into a catty back-and-forth with Trixie Mattel, winner of season three of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars.
Ms Rochard then gave a fresh interview to Insider on 24 January offering further revelations about Mr Santos’s mysterious youth in South America.
She spoke of his support for Brazil’s left-leaning president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva during his first term (Lula is now back in office after beating dubious corruption charges), saying: “Lula promised to make laws to help us gays. They were all Lulistas and Anthony [Devolder AKA George Santos] was too because he hung out with us.”
Ms Rochard continued: “He wasn’t a bad person. He was a regular gay teenager in a country where there were no laws protecting gay people.”
Of her old friend’s subsequent conversion to Republicanism, she said it had happened after he had returned to the US and become “this crazy thing here”, speaking for all of us when she asked: “What craziness is this?”
A month later, Mr Santos found himself further ridiculed when a Los Angeles-based drag queen named Meatball unveiled an ironic tribute act devoted to him at Manhattan’s Le Poisson Rouge nightclub, a clip of which duly went viral.
Despite the swirl of allegations surrounding him, Mr Santos has since attempted to go about his business as a congressman as best he can.
But when he attended a rally of Donald Trump supporters on 4 April to protest the former’s president’s arraignment in Manhattan, Mr Santos and fellow representative Marjorie Taylor Greene were ridiculed and berated by counter-protesters.
“George, you should have shown up in drag!” one person shouted.
