WASHINGTON — Rep. George Santos, the New York Republican under indictment for campaign finance violations, appointed himself as his own campaign treasurer Friday.
In paperwork filed with the Federal Election Commission, Santos named himself as treasurer and custodian of records, listing a Washington post office box as his official address.
Santos follows a line of people overseeing his campaign finances since his November election: Nancy Marks, a longtime New York GOP operative who resigned as his treasurer in January; Thomas Datwyler, who denied ever accepting the job after his name appeared on FEC paperwork; and Andrew Olson, who had never served as a campaign treasurer and whose only identifying information was a Google email address.
Santos didn’t immediately return a message asking for the reason behind the change.
Federal campaigns must have a treasurer of record in order to accept contributions or spend money. While it’s legal for candidates to serve as their own treasurers, few elected members of Congress do.
“This is a significant responsibility — if there’s an enforcement action against a committee, the treasurer is usually named as a respondent,” the FEC says in its guidance. “Treasurers can be found officially (or, in some circumstances, personally) liable for the actions they take.”
Santos’s campaign account had $25,096 in it at the end of the first quarter, after he reported $5,333 in new contributions but $8,353 in refunds to donors.
Santos’s campaign committee was at the center of a 13-count federal indictment last week accusing the freshman congressman of fraud and money laundering. Prosecutors said he misled donors about the nature of his campaign accounts, redirected money to personal use, falsified financial disclosures and took unemployment benefits he wasn’t entitled to.
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted along party lines to send an expulsion resolution to the Ethics Committee.
