The notorious congressman ― who fabricated details of his past before his election in 2022 and currently faces 23 criminal charges ― has been caught in yet another apparent tall tale, suggesting that people affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party briefly kidnapped his 5-year-old niece.
In an interview published Tuesday, Santos told The New York Times that he has endured numerous death threats as an openly gay lawmaker. He also suggested that his hard-line stance against the Chinese Communist Party made his young niece a target.
“I’ll give you one, I’ll give you one story that nobody talks about,” Santos told the Times.
The lawmaker claimed his niece vanished from a New York City playground in Queens but was spotted 40 minutes later on security footage with two Chinese men.
“Look, I don’t want to go into like, conspiracy theory,” Santos told the Times. “But you know, if the shoe fits, right?”
The Times contacted a high-ranking law enforcement official who reportedly confirmed police officers had been tasked to investigate. They never found evidence that anyone was kidnapped, however, let alone of any involvement from the Chinese Communist Party.
“We found nothing at all to suggest it’s true,” the official told the Times. “I’d lean into, ‘he made it up.’”
The congressman has been victimized previously in earnest. The Times noted that a Florida man was charged for allegedly threatening to bash Santos’ “head in with a bat.”
These incidents are often overshadowed by Santos’ many alleged lies, half-truths and fabrications, however.
These include (but are certainly not limited to) his name itself, being a volleyball “star” at Baruch College despite never having been enrolled, that he is a “proud American Jew” who descends from Holocaust survivors from Ukraine, and that his mother was in the World Trade Center on 9/11.
Santos was arrested in May on 13 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, stealing public funds and lying on federal disclosure forms. Earlier this month, Santos landed 10 additional charges that included identity theft, embezzlement and submitting false campaign reports.
The congressman pleaded not guilty to all charges and is due back in court Oct. 27.
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