[ad_1]
Why would anybody donate to Rep. George Santos’ reelection marketing campaign? Santos was indicted in Could by the federal authorities on 13 counts of wire fraud, cash laundering, stealing public funds, and mendacity on federal disclosure varieties. He has pleaded not responsible.
This week, Home Democrats put Republicans on the spot by introducing a decision to censure Santos for his many lies about his background. Home Majority Chief Kevin McCarthy, given his slim and sometimes fractious majority, has rejected efforts to expel Santos, however informed Fox Information final month that he wished to defend the seat “with one other Republican.” In January, Nassau County Republican leaders demanded that Santos resign from the Home over his lies, calling him a “stain” on his district.
However Santos persists. In April he introduced his reelection bid. And regardless of the looming federal prison prices, he nonetheless managed to lift $179,000 from April to June for his marketing campaign, The New York Occasions reported, citing filings with the Federal Election Fee final Friday.
Now that’s not a lot for a candidate operating in a New York swing district that’s rated lean-Democrat. However Santos put the cash to good use to learn himself.
RELATED STORY: US Rep. George Santos repays himself $85K raised from lackluster reelection fundraising
The Occasions wrote:
Mr. Santos used $85,000 of the cash on Could 30 to repay himself. He had beforehand reported giving his personal marketing campaign greater than $700,000 in private loans.
The Occasions famous that solely three of the donors to Santos’ reelection marketing campaign reported residing contained in the congressman’s district which incorporates elements of Lengthy Island and the New York Metropolis borough of Queens.
The Day by day Beast and Mom Jones each reported that Santos cashed in massive with supporters of exiled indicted Chinese language billionaire Guo Wengui, who’s an ally of right-wing agitator Steve Bannon.
Guo and Bannon share one thing else in frequent: each face prison fraud prices alleging that they’d fleeced their supporters. In reality, in August 2020, federal brokers arrested Bannon on Guo’s luxurious yacht after he was indicted on prices of defrauding donors who gave cash to a basis he set as much as construct a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border. Trump pardoned Bannon within the ultimate hours of his time period, however he was indicted on related prices by Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin Bragg in September 2022.
Guo fled China in 2014 to keep away from fraud prices there. In the US, he gained a following of supporters in Chinese language communities by establishing himself as an outspoken foe of China’s communist authorities. However he ran afoul of the legislation within the U.S. Mom Jones wrote:
In March, the Justice Division charged Guo with deploying a sequence of fraudulent enterprise schemes to fleece his followers out of greater than $1 billion. Federal prosecutors alleged Guo used traders’ funds to pay for mansions and fancy vehicles, $36,000 mattresses, and a $27 million yacht. He has been indicted for wire fraud, securities fraud, financial institution fraud, and cash laundering. Guo claims the feds are after him on the behest of the Chinese language authorities to silence him.
Guo has been held with out bail since his arrest on March 15 as a result of he’s thought-about a flight danger.
The Day by day Beast, citing a report from the Hark Herald Press, an impartial outlet that displays Chinese language political operations, mentioned that just about all the new donors to Santos’ marketing campaign have been linked to a bunch that Guo and Bannon shaped referred to as the New Federal State of China (NFSC). The group advocates a regime change in China and has proclaimed itself an anti-communist Chinese language authorities in exile. Guo additionally spent lots of of 1000’s of {dollars} to help Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, in response to Mom Jones.
Mom Jones reported that of about 50 whole contributors on Santos’ marketing campaign finance report, about three dozen of them, unfold throughout the U.S. had Chinese language or Asian names and every had donated $3,300 to Santos, the utmost quantity allowed beneath federal legislation for a major election marketing campaign. These donations accounted for about $130,000 of the marketing campaign donations reported by Santos.
These donors included a part-time cashier from Georgia, college students from Pennsylvania and California, a masseuse from Texas and a member of a stage crew from New York, in response to the Occasions. The three information retailers have been solely capable of attain a handful of those donors. Xuehong Zhang, a masseuse from Plano, Texas, who recognized herself as a Chinese language immigrant, informed the Occasions that she donated to Santos as a result of “I see him need to take down C.C.P. (Chinese language Communist Social gathering). I simply need to take down C.C.P.” She mentioned she realized about Santos on Gettr, although she didn’t point out Guo by title.
Gettr is a conservative social media platform which ex-employees informed The Washington Put up is managed by Guo. Its chief government and public face is Jason Miller, a former senior adviser to Donald Trump.
Requested about these donations, Santos informed The Day by day Beast that he assumed “a fundraiser” had taken place with out offering any particulars. That didn’t clarify how tens of 1000’s of {dollars} poured into his marketing campaign on the identical time from donors scattered across the U.S. Mom Jones mentioned that Guo supporters had at one level distributed an inventory to assist gather marketing campaign donations for Santos.
So what did Santos do to endear himself with Guo’s supporters? The marketing campaign donations started flowing in round mid-Could after Santos developed a sudden obsession with the plight of Guo, who additionally goes by the title of Miles Guo. This started simply days earlier than the DOJ indicted Santos on Could 10.
On Could 5, Santos confirmed up at Guo’s mansion in Mahwah, New Jersey, which the Justice Division has alleged Guo bought with funds from scamming his supporters, Mom Jones reported. Santos gave an interview to Guo aides that aired on Gettr through which he pledged to make sure that “Miles Guo is free and given a chance to a trial.”
On Could 6, Santos tweeted a short video assertion: “Miles Guo is a political prisoner of the CCP inside the America. Let that sink in. Free Miles Guo.”
Santos additionally sponsored a whole of 11 payments concentrating on the CCP, the Day by day Beast reported. Santos additionally delivered a speech on the Home flooring through which he declared: “The fees towards Miles Guo are merely a part of an organizing marketing campaign of political persecution introduced towards him by the CCP,” Mom Jones reported.
Mom Jones wrote:
He then launched a invoice he referred to as the “Guo Act,” which is premised on the unsubstantiated notion that China is corruptly influencing US courts to advance its pursuits. The invoice would require federal judges and senior federal prosecutors to submit monetary disclosures supposedly aimed toward assessing whether or not they have obtained funds by international governments. The invoice isn’t going wherever.
And in June Santos joined Bannon in attending the third anniversary celebration of the New Federal State of China in New York.
Santos even went as far as to overtly blame his personal indictment on his help for Guo. In a fund-raising pitch on the day of his indictment, Santos tweeted: “I requested questions on #MilesGuo & the DOJ indicts me 5 days later!” He added that he wanted monetary help “to maintain me combating for freedom.”
[ad_2]
Source link