CLC Files FEC Complaint Against Rep. George Santos for Violating Campaign Finance Laws

On January 9, 2023, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that recently elected Rep. George Santos and his 2022 campaign committee, Devolder-Santos for Congress, violated federal campaign finance laws. The complaint alleges Santos and his campaign engaged in a straw donor scheme to knowingly and willfully conceal the true sources of $705,000 that Santos purported to loan to his campaign; deliberately reporting false disbursement figures on FEC disclosure reports, among many other reporting violations; and illegally using campaign funds to pay for personal expenses, including rent on a house that Santos lived in during the campaign.

Adav Noti, Campaign Legal Center’s Senior Vice President and Legal Director, issued the following statement: 

“Voters deserve the truth. They have a right to know who is spending to influence their vote and their government and they have a right to know how the candidates competing for their vote are spending those funds. George Santos has lied to voters about a lot of things, but while lying about your background might not be illegal, deceiving voters about your campaign’s funding and spending is a serious violation of federal law. That is what we are asking the Federal Election Commission to investigate. As the agency responsible for enforcing America’s campaign finance laws, the FEC owes it to the public to find out the truth about how George Santos raised and spent the money he used to run for public office, and to ensure accountability for Santos’s illegal conduct.”



 

UPDATE: On January 10th, this complaint was sent to the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice to alert the Department to potential criminal violations of the federal campaign finance laws that warrant investigation.