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Tribune News Service
Tribune News Service
National
Michael McAuliff and Dave Goldiner

Rep. George Santos vows to stop lying : ‘I’ve learned my lesson’

You won’t hear any more fibs from U.S. Rep. George Santos. He gave his word.

Santos, a New York Republican, told a right-wing news outlet that he will be strictly telling the truth from now on.

“I’ve learned my lesson, he said in an interview with One America News Network Tuesday. “I can guarantee you that from now on anything, everything is always going to be aboveboard.”

After months of damaging disclosures that he lied about almost every aspect of his life, Santos asserted that he has been “largely aboveboard” all along.

“It’s largely always been aboveboard,” he said. “I’m just gonna go the extra step now to double-check, cross-reference everything.”

The new remarks came after Santos filed an amended campaign finance disclosure form that only raised new questions about his money matters.

The new form that was filed late Tuesday night says Santos personally lent his campaign $500,000. Another $125,000 was loaned by another unnamed entity.

An original version of the form had claimed both loans came from himself and a second version claimed both came from some other entity.

Santos issued a statement that sought to distance himself from his report.

“The report is based on the limited information provided to the campaign from the previous treasurer Nancy Marks,” Santos said.

Marks has said she resigned at the request of the Federal Election Commission, a disclosure that raises questions about whether she is cooperating with state or federal investigations into Santos.

A previous disclosure form listed a replacement for Marks, but that person said he turned down the job. The latest supposed treasurer has not yet spoken publicly and appears to have no previous federal campaign finance experience.

Santos, whose district covers parts of Long Island and Queens, has become a headache for House Republicans and a late-night laughingstock after he was exposed for falsely claiming that he worked for big investment banks, went to Baruch College and NYU, and even had Jewish relatives who fled the Holocaust.

He is also facing potentially weightier questions about his finances, which could potentially lead to criminal exposure.

The self-styled conservative gay son of Brazilian immigrants claims to be a millionaire but as recently as 2020 filed paperwork saying he was earning $55,000 a year as a call center worker.

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