George Santos falsely told a judge in Seattle in 2017 that he worked for Goldman Sachs, Politico reported Friday, adding to the long list of lies by the now-New York Republican congressman.
Politico published an audio recording of part of Santos’s conversation with a judge during an arraignment for Gustavo Ribeiro Trelha, whom Santos told the judge was a family friend. Trelha later pleaded guilty to fraud, went to jail and was deported to Brazil, Politico reported.
“So what do you do for work?” King County Superior Court Judge Sean P. O’Donnell says in the recording of the May 15, 2017, arraignment hearing for Trelha.
“I am an aspiring politician and I work for Goldman Sachs,” Santos is heard to reply.
“You work for Goldman Sachs in New York?” O’Donnell says.
“Yup,” Santos replies.
It was a lie Santos would repeat five years later as he campaigned for Congress, and one of many parts of his biography that reporters found to be fabricated. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in November, but his résumé has unraveled since. Though he temporarily stepped down from House committees, Santos has rebuffed calls to resign and has not been pushed to do so by Republican leaders.
Santos is the subject of multiple local, state and federal investigations as New York Republicans and some members of the House GOP have called for him to step down.
That he worked for Goldman Sachs was one of his many falsehoods; the company told the New York Times there was no record of his ever having been employed there.
Santos also told the judge that his parents and Trelha’s parents were friends in Brazil. Trelha told Politico that he met Santos through a Florida Facebook group for Brazilians, meaning Santos also lied about how the two knew each other, Politico reported.
Santos’s lies have ranged from claiming to have degrees from universities he never attended to saying his mother was working in one of the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001, when immigration records show she was in Brazil. On Monday, Santos said on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” that he had been “a terrible liar,” though he doubled down on some claims, including the 9/11 story.
Santos’s attorney, Joe Murray, did not immediately respond to a request from The Washington Post. Politico reported that Murray did not respond to that organization’s requests.
The Washington Post has not independently verified the recording published by Politico.