The Federal Election Commission has warned that Long Island Rep. George Santos may be in more legal jeopardy over a sketchy job announcement earlier this week.
The freshman Republican’s campaign said Wednesday it had replaced its longtime treasurer — only for the announced replacement, Thomas Datwyler, to deny he had ever agreed to take the job.
“It has come to the attention of the Federal Election Commission that you may have failed to include the true, correct, or complete treasurer information,” the FEC wrote in a Thursday letter to Datwyler.
The agency’s missive goes on to remind the Santos campaign that “knowingly and willfully making any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation to a federal government agency, including the Federal Election Commission, is punishable” under federal law.
“The Commission may report apparent violations to the appropriate law enforcement authorities,” adds the letter, which sets a March 2 deadline to confirm that its filing indicating that Datwyler is the new treasurer of Devolder-Santos for Congress and five other political fundraising committees linked to Santos is accurate.
A lawyer for Datwyler claimed Wednesday that Santos’ team listed him as treasurer without his authorization.
“On Monday we informed the Santos campaign that Mr. Datwyler would not be serving as treasurer,” the lawyer, Derek Ross, said in a statement. “It appears there’s a disconnect between that conversation and the filings [Wednesday] which we did not authorize.”
It’s unclear why the Santos campaign is replacing former treasurer Nancy Marks, who has been involved with Santos since his first House run in 2020 and worked as treasurer for former New York GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin’s failed campaign for governor last year.
Santos’ team has also actively amended several campaign finance documents on file with FEC this week.
On Wednesday, Santos’ team changed paperwork to show that a $500,000 loan he made to his 2022 congressional campaign did not, in fact, come from “personal funds of the candidate.” It is unknown where the funds he lent to his campaign came from.
Federal regulations require that campaigns have a treasurer in place to raise or spend money. The treasurer, or a person designated by the treasurer, is also responsible for approving campaign expenses.
Last week, Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY) called for Santos’ campaign accounts to be immediately frozen while authorities investigate what LaLota called “the very fraud that induced” donations to the politician’s congressional campaign.
LaLota expressed concern that sketchy Santos may “drain his campaign account” before multiple investigations into his finances wrap up, and he argued that any money left in his account should be returned to “the contributors he duped.”
Last month, Santos admitted to The Post that he made up most of his resume during his run for office, lying about his education, work history, and religion, among other things.
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