By Fredreka Schouten | CNN
Rep. George Santos has named himself treasurer of his campaign committee, marking the latest twist in a months-long saga of baffling filings his campaign has made with federal regulators.
The new presentationmade Friday afternoon with the Federal Election Commission, comes a little more than a week after federal prosecutors filed a 13-count criminal indictment, charging the New York Republican with wire fraud, fraudulently obtaining unemployment benefits due to Covid-19 and lying about his personal finances on forms he submitted to the US House of Representatives as a candidate. He has denied doing any harm and pleaded not guilty to the positions
Santos’ attorney and an aide did not immediately respond to CNN’s inquiries Friday evening.
Questions have time revolved around identity from Santos’ campaign treasurer. This year, the Santos campaign named a new treasurer identified as Andrew Olson, but federal and state records did not show anyone by that name serving as treasurer of any other federal committee or any political committee operating in the state from New York.
At the time Olson was added as treasurer, the address associated with him and the Santos campaign was a mixed-use commercial and apartment building in Elmhurst, New York, where the congressman’s sister had resided until the beginning of the year.
Earlier this month, the watchdog group Citizens for Accountability and Ethics in Washington, filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission questioning Olson’s existence and asking the agency to investigate whether the campaign had potentially violated campaign finance laws with documents listing that person as treasurer.
Political committees cannot raise or spend money without a treasurer. Candidates can legally serve as their own campaign treasurers, but it’s rare for them to do so.
In his short time in Washington, Santos’ campaign documents have faced intense scrutiny. They range from questions about dozens of campaign expenses listed at $199.99, a penny below the threshold for which campaigns are required to withhold receipts, to confuse who held the role of treasurer.
On Jan. 25, for example, the Santos campaign listed a political consultant from Wisconsin as a replacement for congresswoman Nancy Marks’ treasurer. But the consultant’s lawyer told the campaign he had done so without his authorizationand that his client had turned down the job.
Then, on Jan. 31, Marks informed the FEC that he had resigned. Later that day, Olson’s electronic signature appeared for the first time in a Santos report.
Santos has argued in the past that the documents were not his responsibility.
“I don’t touch any of my FEC stuff, do I?” he told CNN in January. “So don’t be fake and report that I did it because you know every campaign hires fiduciaries.”
