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As Rep. George Santos’ campaign tries to clean up the financial mess of the New York Republican’s campaign, it named a new treasurer in updated forms filed Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission.
The only problem: the person mentioned, Thomas Datwyler, turned down the job earlier this week, his lawyer confirmed to DailyMail.com.
‘On Monday we informed the Santos campaign that Mr. Datwyler would not be serving as treasurer. It appears there has been a disconnect between that conversation and today’s presentations, which we did not authorize,” said Datwyler’s attorney, Derek Ross.
According to Datwyler’s LinkedIn profile, he identifies as a “campaign finance compliance consultant” and works for a Wisconsin-based company. Datwyler’s specialty is helping candidates with their FEC forms.
In new Federal Election Commission filings for committees related to embattled Rep. George Santos, a new treasurer is named. However, the individual’s lawyer told DailyMail.com that he turned down the job two days ago.
Campaign finance consultant Thomas Datwyler is listed as treasurer of at least four Santos-related political committees. However, his lawyer says he turned down the job with the Santos campaign on Monday.
Mother Jones first reported that Datwyler had turned down the job with Santos.
Ross told DailyMail.com by phone that he and his client are trying to get in touch with someone at the FEC “to figure out how to resolve this.”
Datwyler’s contact information is now listed on various Santos-related committees, including the Devolder Santos Victory Committeethe Devolder Santos for Congressional recountthe Devolder Santos Nassau Victory Committee and the Devolder Santos Van Duyne Victory Committeewhich appears to be a joint fundraising committee with Texas Republican Rep. Beth Van Duyne.
All of Santos’ moves are being scrutinized after the Republican congressman was found to have lied about almost every major detail of his backstory.
It’s clear from the flurry of FEC amended filings that Santos is trying to clean up the filings before a major deadline at the end of the month.
On Tuesday, the amended forms showed he is no longer claiming a $500,000 congressional campaign loan from personal funds.
The Daily Beast first reported on the FEC’s amended filing, showing Santos unchecked the box reading ‘candidate’s personal funds’ when listing the source of the six-figure loan, which still listed the congressman as its primary source.
THE ORIGINAL: A mid-September FEC filing shows the source of a $500,000 loan to Santos’ campaign is Santos’ ‘personal candidate funds’
THE CHANGE: A new filing Tuesday shows the box indicating the loan came from ‘candidate’s personal funds’ was not checked
One of the remaining mysteries is how he ended up with a six-figure income and was able to self-finance his campaign.
However, the amended documents do not shed any light on the origin of those campaign funds.
In another updated document, the Santos campaign details that the candidate loaned his campaign $125,000 in October, but the ‘candidate’s personal funds’ box is not checked.
Last month, The New York Times reported that Santos, 34, lied about important parts of his resume, including the university he attended, and that he previously held positions at the prestigious financial institutions Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.
Since then, even more of Santos’ biography has unraveled, including his claim to have attended the $59,800-a-year Horace Mann prep school, before dropping out when his parents fell into financial difficulties.
All along, one of the biggest head scratchers has been how Santos was able to lend his campaign a minimum of $700,000 and who his clients were for his company, the Devolder Organization, where he claimed to be earning a $750,000 annual salary.
In a follow-up story earlier this month, detailed times how Santos was linked to a group called RedStone Strategies, which solicited donations for the Republican’s congressional campaign, but is not registered with the FEC, possibly circumventing campaign finance laws.
The newspaper found that a Santos donor gave the campaign a $25,000 donation on October 21 through RedStone, which it described as an “independent spending” group.
Days later, on October 26, Santos loaned his campaign $125,000.
“The person who solicited the donor said that Mr. Santos asked him in the weeks leading up to the campaign to reach out to donors, some of whom had already given their maximum allowance to Mr. Santos’s election campaign, and that will help coordinate your donations. to RedStone, according to a person familiar with the deal who wishes to remain anonymous,” the Times report said.
Groups like RedStone, also known as Super PAC, can exist, but they must register with the FEC within 10 days of being formed.
While they can raise funds for specific candidates, they cannot coordinate with campaigns.
Santos had previously said he used funds from his company, the Devolver Organization, to finance his campaign, a move that legal experts say could count as an illegal corporate contribution.
Brendan Fischer, deputy chief executive of government watchdog group Documented, told The Daily Beast that Santos’ latest move “isn’t a half measure, it’s barely a quarter measure.”
“I don’t know what they think they’re doing,” Fischer said. The ‘Santos’ campaign could have unchecked the “candidate’s personal funds” box, but it still reports that the $500,000 came from Santos himself.’
“If the ‘candidate loan’ did not actually come from the candidate, then Santos should come clean and reveal where the money actually came from,” Fischer continued.
“Santos cannot uncheck a box and make his legal problems go away,” he added.