Rep. George Santos’ campaign filed paperwork Tuesday listing a new campaign treasurer but provided scant detail about the mysterious man apparently tapped to track the truth-challenged New York congressman’s coffers.
A statement of organization for Santos’ campaign listed Andrew Olson as the new treasurer. But it gave no phone number for Olson, and provided the same address for him — 9002 Queens Blvd. in Queens — that Santos has listed as his own address in prior filings.
There did not appear to be evidence that anyone named Andrew Olson had ever served as treasurer for a federal election campaign.
Olson’s alleged ascension to the post faces unique scrutiny. The last treasurer named by Santos’ campaign said he was not not, in fact, Santos’ treasurer, and had not authorized forms stating that he was.
Messages from the New York Daily News to an email address listed for Olson were not immediately returned Tuesday. Santos’ lawyer declined to confirm whether Olson was the new treasurer on Monday night, after some FEC paperwork was filed listing Olson as the treasurer.
“No comment on who is the new treasurer,” Joseph Murray, the lawyer for Santos, said in a text message. “Please let the treasurer do their job.”
Santos’ former treasurer Nancy Marks said she resigned Jan. 25, according to FEC records. The commission sent a letter dated Jan. 26 to Thomas Datwyler, the listed replacement for Marks, asking him to confirm paperwork that named him as Santos’ new treasurer.
Datwyler’s attorney, Derek Ross, promptly wrote back to the FEC saying that his client was not the treasurer and asking that the matter be referred to “the appropriate law enforcement agency to determine whether a crime has occurred.”
Marks and Datwyler did not immediately respond to request for comments for this story.
A week ago, the commission sent a notice to Santos asking him to name his campaign treasurer or face the loss of his ability to receive campaign donations. The FEC set a deadline of Tuesday, which Santos’ campaign met.
But the new filings puzzled observers.
“So now they at least have Olson officially listed as their treasurer,” Robert Maguire, research director at the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said in an email. “The issue now is that no one really knows who this Olson guy is.”
The new statement of organization said Santos’ committee is a “National committee of the Republican Party.”
But Brett Kappel, a campaign finance lawyer, said the only national committees of the GOP are the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee.
“Whoever it is who filed this report doesn’t have a basic understanding of how to prepare and submit these reports,” Kappel said.
“A mistake like this is kind of mind-boggling,” he said. “I was frankly shocked that someone would file that in this situation.”
Santos, 34, has represented a swatch of Long Island and a sliver of eastern Queens since he was sworn into Congress last month. As a candidate, he fashioned a fictional résumé for himself, misleading voters about his education, religion, family history, professional experience and property ownership.
Multiple U.S. prosecutors’ offices have launched investigations into the freshman congressman. And a prosecutor’s office in Brazil said last month that it was reviving a long-dormant criminal case against him.
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