Leaked audio from embattled New York Representative George Santos’s office reveals the Republican freshman giving botox advice to a would-be employee in his office.
When Derek Myers, who volunteered for Mr Santos, learned that he would not be getting a permanent role, the congressman offered some free advice.
“Stop going to Colombia for your diluted Botox,” Mr Santos said, according to leaked audio published by Talking Points Memo. Mr Myers worked for Mr Santos on a volunteer basis and had hoped to join Mr Santos’ team full-time.
But Mr Santos cited Mr Myers’ legal troubles related to when Mr Myers worked as a television reporter in Ohio and published surreptitiously recorded audio from a courtroom testimony.
Mr Myers provided Talking Points Memo a recording of a conversation he had on 30 January and requested the outlet not publish it until he had a chance to ask for his job back the following day. Mr Myers reportedly did not disclose to Mr Santos or his chief of staff Charlie Lovett that he was recording them. However, the pair joked about potentially being recorded.
“From my understanding, recording in this building is a federal crime, and you get seven years,” Mr Santos reportedly told Mr Myers. “Have fun at your peril!”
During their conversation, Mr Myers tried to ask for his job.
“Are you firing me?” Mr Myers asked. Mr Santos, who was eating candy his father brought from Brazil, let Mr Myers speak about his story, which included a trip to Bogota, Colombia, “to get my Botox.”
“It’s like $100, but it’s $400 here,” Mr Myers said.
“I spend a lot more than that on Botox, but I trust the people,” Mr Santos replied.
Mr Santos said that Mr Myers’ legal past was “not concerning to us, it’s concerning to this institution.”
According to Mr Myers, Mr Santos had initially given him a preliminary offer as a staff assistant where he would be paid $50,000 a year.
“I had about a 15 minute meeting with them,” he said. “They didn’t ask me any questions.”
But Mr Santos ultimately decided not to immediately rescind the offer to Mr Myers, saying he was “not not giving you a shot” and “it’s bad enough that I have to answer for myself these days, I don’t want to have to answer, prospectively, for you.”
But Mr Myers criticised the way Mr Santos handled it.
“This is a war,” Mr Myers said. “And I said, it’s fun. He’s like, oh, okay. Well, um, we’ll be in touch. And so it lasted about 15 minutes.”
