DOJ Request Indicates Active Federal Probe Into George Santos: Report

QUEENS, NY — The Justice Department is probing Long Island Rep. George Santos' campaign finances, and asked the Federal Election Commission to pause its own investigation into the 34-year-old freshman congressman, according to a report.

The Justice Department also asked the election commission to turn over any relevant documents, two people familiar with the requests, who remained anonymous, told The Washington Post on Friday evening.

The request for the FEC to hold off on investigating Santos' campaign finances means there is likely an active federal criminal investigation, a campaign finance expert told the paper.

In addition to the federal probe, the Post also reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission interviewed two people who shared a story of being pitched by Santos in 2020 to invest in Harbor City Capital, shuttered in 2021 as a Ponzi scheme.

Christian Lopez and Tiffany Bogosian told the Post that they were asked by the SEC for details about Santos' offer, made in an upscale restaurant, Lopez told CNN Thursday.

The news came as Santos was filmed by C-SPAN speaking in Congress for International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a day after an exclusive Patch report catalogued the embattled congressman's social media history that multiple people told Patch included offensive comments, including one that appeared to joke about saluting Hitler and "the Jews and the Blacks."

The Republican congressman is also the subject of several other criminal investigations, according to earlier announcements from the New York State attorney general's office, the Nassau County district attorney's office and Brazilian authorities.

Santos has been under fire for over a month after multiple reports investigated his resume and found lies that Santos later admitted to, and many more alleged lies.

Santos: Anti-semitism is a plague in this nation pic.twitter.com/2z3bXwH039
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 27, 2023