Here in New York, prosecutors in Nassau County have opened a criminal probe into George Santos, after the Republican congressmember-elect admitted he lied about his work, education and family history. In the latest revelation, resurfaced social media posts show Santos wrote last year that his mother died in the September 11, 2001, attacks — only to claim months later that she died in 2016. Santos has also falsely claimed Jewish ancestry and said his grandparents fled the Holocaust; lied about attending Baruch College and NYU; and lied about working at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. On Wednesday, Santos granted his first television interview since The New York Times published its exposé of Santos’s lies. He spoke on Fox News with former Congressmember Tulsi Gabbard, who was sitting in for Tucker Carlson.

Tulsi Gabbard: “These are blatant lies. My question is: Do you have no shame? Do you have no shame in the people who are — now you’re asking to trust you to go and be their voice for them, their families and their kids in Washington?”

Rep.-elect George Santos: “Tulsi, I can say the same thing about the Democrats and the party. Look at Joe Biden. Joe Biden has been lying to the American people for 40 years. He’s the president of the United States. Democrats resoundingly support him. Do they have no shame?”

Meanwhile, federal prosecutors have opened an informal investigation into Santos’s finances. When Santos first ran for Congress in 2020, he listed no assets and a salary of $55,000. Yet Santos reported millions of dollars of income from a company he founded last year, and FEC filings show he loaned his most recent campaign more than $700,000. New York Congressmember Ritchie Torres tweeted, “Where did all that money come from? The Ethics Committee MUST start investigating immediately.” House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy has yet to comment on the scandal.