Santos charging to attend swearing-in: reports

Embattled Rep.-elect George Santos (R-N.Y.) advertised that donors could pay between $100 and $500 to attend his swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday, according to several outlets.

The invitation — which reportedly noted that donors would also receive a round-trip bus ride from New York to Washington, D.C., a luncheon and a tour of the Capitol grounds — has once again drawn scrutiny to the representative-elect, who has recently faced intense backlash over his false claims about his background.

Santos did not respond to NBC New York or other outlets about the most recent controversy. The Hill reached out for comment as well.

After a New York Times article called into question much of his résumé, Santos admitted last week that he lied about his educational and professional background on the campaign trail. 

Despite claiming to have graduated from Baruch College and worked for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, Santos told the New York Post in an interview that he did not graduate from any college or university and never worked directly for the two firms. 

Santos also made misleading statements about his heritage, previously claiming he was Jewish and that his grandparents fled Nazi persecution in Europe during World War II. He later walked back these claims when speaking with the Post.

“I never claimed to be Jewish,” Santos said. “I am Catholic. Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I was ‘Jew-ish.’”

Fellow New York congressman Rep. Ritchie Torres (D) suggested in a tweet on Thursday that Santos’s invitations to his swearing-in could represent an ethics violation.

“George Santos, who never misses an opportunity to violate Congressional Ethics, is charging people for touring the US Capitol and attending his Congressional swearing-in,” he said. “Is the US Capitol one of the 13 properties in the imaginary Santos real estate empire?”

However, Santos and other representatives-elect did not end up being in sworn on Tuesday as the battle for Speaker of the House dragged on and delayed the event.