George Santos used different last name on GoFundMe scam to get more money from Jewish donors, former friend claims

Republican congressman had unclear role with organisation that billed itself as charity for sick pets

A former acquaintance of Congressman George Santos appeared on CNN on Tuesday and delivered the latest round of seemingly unending allegations of dishonesty piling up around the freshman Republican from New York.

The interview between Gregory Morey-Parker and CNN’s Anderson Cooper comes as members of Mr Santos’s party are already calling for him to resign, while Democrats including Ritchie Torres are speculating openly in the press that Mr Santos will end up in legal trouble and be forced out of office.

The surreal exchange Tuesday evening resulted in Mr Morey-Parker alleging that Mr Santos had operated GoFundMe campaigns as part of a charity for sick pets. His role in the project is unclear; he has at times said he ran the group and later said he only did outreach for them.

At one point, Mr Morey-Parker alleged that the now-congressman had cheated one homeless pet owner out of thousands of dollars in donations, a charge Mr Santos has denied. He also claimed that the Republican representative would use a false last name on some campaigns in an effort to pass off as Jewish, which Mr Morey-Parker explained was part of a scheme to entice Jewish Americans to donate to the campaigns.

If true, it would be a clearly antisemitic assumption by Mr Santos, who has already been caught lying about his supposed Jewish ancestry. The congressman has previously stated that his maternal grandparents escaped the Holocaust when geneology records indicate they were actually born and lived entirely in Brazil. The Independent has reached out to Mr Santos’s office for comment about this claim.

Mr Morey-Parker would go on to claim that the congressman stole a scarf from him and wore it at a “Stop the Steal”-themed rally in Washington DC ahead of January 6.

“A stolen scarf to a steal-the-election rally,” Mr Morey-Parker told CNN. “You have to love the irony. And the audacity, quite frankly.”

Mr Santos has vowed to remain in office for the duration of his two-year term, which began this month.

He is known to be under investigation for his past history of false statements by both federal and local authorities; he also faces the potential for an investigation by the House Ethics Committee.