George Santos promised reporters a shock on Tuesday. When he introduced coffee and donuts for the journalists staking out his workplace, it was a letdown. However Santos apparently had one other shock.
Late Tuesday afternoon, Santos’ political operation filed a flurry of amended marketing campaign finance reviews, telling the feds, amongst different issues, {that a} $500,000 mortgage he gave to his marketing campaign didn’t, in truth, come from his private funds as he’d beforehand claimed.
Nevertheless, whereas the newly amended submitting informed us the place the funds did not come from, it additionally raised a brand new query—the place did the cash come from?
Whereas each the previous and new marketing campaign filings declare that the loans got here “from the candidate,” the marketing campaign’s most up-to-date amended submitting had ticked the field for “private funds of the candidate”; on the newly amended submitting right this moment, that field is unchecked.
Advertisement
One other amended submitting on Tuesday disclosed {that a} $125,000 “mortgage from the candidate” in late October additionally didn’t come from his “private funds,” however just like the $500,000 query, didn’t say the place the cash got here from, when the mortgage was due, or what entity, if any, backed the cash.
The Actual Cause McCarthy Put Santos on the Science Committee
The New York Occasions reported earlier this month that the Santos operation had solicited giant political donations by means of an entity that was by no means registered with the Federal Election Fee. That entity seems to share a reputation—RedStone Methods—with a non-public firm The Day by day Beast beforehand reported was tied to Santos.
In accordance with the Occasions, one donor minimize a $25,000 contribution test to RedStone Methods in late October simply days earlier than Santos loaned his marketing campaign $125,000—cash he’s now telling the FEC got here from the candidate, however not from his private funds.
“The one that solicited the donor stated he was requested by Mr. Santos within the weeks main as much as the marketing campaign to strategy donors, a few of whom had already given the utmost allowed to Mr. Santos’s election marketing campaign, and to assist coordinate their donations to RedStone, in keeping with an individual conversant in the association who wished to stay nameless,” the Occasions reported.
Advertisement
Brendan Fischer, deputy government director of presidency watchdog Documented and a marketing campaign finance professional, first raised questions concerning the supply of Santos’ “self-funded” $705,000 marketing campaign bankroll in a Day by day Beast report final month.
George Santos’ Huge Marketing campaign Loans Might Not Be Authorized
Santos has beforehand admitted that he used money from his firm, the Devolder Group LLC, to finance his marketing campaign—a transfer authorized consultants stated may add as much as an illegal $705,000 company contribution. Santos confirmed to The Day by day Beast final month that he withdrew cash from his agency particularly to underwrite his marketing campaign, reasoning that he was the agency’s sole proprietor. (The LLC will not be a “sole proprietorship,” nevertheless, and its accounts are distinct from Santos’ private accounts.)
Santos made the identical declare in a WABC radio interview, saying the loans have been “the cash I paid myself by means of the Devolder Group.” (Santos’ most up-to-date monetary disclosure reveals a $750,000 wage from the Devolder Group, together with dividends valued between $1 million and $5 million.)
Advertisement
Immediately, Fischer stated the tried correction “isn’t a half-measure—it’s hardly even a quarter-measure.”
“I don’t know what they assume they’re doing,” Fischer informed The Day by day Beast upon reviewing the filings. “Santos’ marketing campaign may need unchecked the ‘private funds of candidate’ field, however it’s nonetheless reporting that the $500,000 got here from Santos himself. If the ‘mortgage from candidate’ didn’t truly come from the candidate, then Santos ought to come clear and disclose the place the cash actually got here from. Santos can’t uncheck a field and make his authorized issues go away.”
Learn extra at The Day by day Beast.
Get the Day by day Beast’s greatest scoops and scandals delivered proper to your inbox. Join now.
Keep knowledgeable and acquire limitless entry to the Day by day Beast’s unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Iran activated air defence systems and shot at several unidentified small airborne vehicles in the early hours of Friday, state television said, amid fears that Israel was taking retaliatory action for last week’s drone strike by Tehran.
Earlier reports in Iran said that explosions were heard near the cities of Isfahan, in central Iran, and Tabriz in the north west, according to the Tasnim news agency, which is close to Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards. Isfahan is home to a major base for the Iranian military.
Tasnim reported that the military air base and the nuclear installations in Isfahan were safe and rejected reports of any attack from outside the country. A senior military official in Isfahan said air defences had fired at unidentified objects and there was no damage, according to Tasnim.
Advertisement
Oil futures jumped following the reports. Futures for Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, rose as much as 4.2 per cent to $90.75 per barrel while West Texas Intermediate, the US marker, gained as much as 4.3 per cent to $86.28 per barrel.
Gold, a haven during times of geopolitical uncertainty, rose as much as 1.6 per cent to $2417.89 per troy ounce.
An Israeli official declined to comment. The White House and Pentagon declined to comment.
Some flights in Iran were suspended for safety reasons but had been restored, Iranian state television reported.
Tension is high in the Middle East over possible Israeli retaliation after Iran fired more than 300 armed drones and missiles at the Jewish state last weekend, the first time Tehran has targeted the country directly from its own soil.
Advertisement
Iran said the strike was a response to an attack on its embassy in Damascus that killed senior military commanders, which Tehran blamed on Israel.
Israeli officials have indicated they would respond, despite western pleas for restraint and fears of the impact it could have on the conflict in Gaza, and the risk that any retaliation could push the Middle East to all-out war.
The Pentagon earlier said that defence secretary Lloyd Austin spoke to his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant on Thursday to discuss “regional threats and Iran’s destabilising actions in the Middle East”.
A Maryland high school student was arrested and charged with threat of mass violence after police say they discovered evidence revealing the teen had plans to commit a school shooting, authorities said Thursday.
The arrest on Wednesday came after authorities discovered a 129-page document they say was written by 18-year-old Alex Ye, the Montgomery County Department of Police (MCPD) said in a news release Thursday.
Authorities learned of the writings followingan exchange Ye had via Instagram messaging with an unidentified person who felt a school shooting was “imminent,” according to the teenager’s arrest warrant. The unidentified person knew Ye from an inpatient treatment at a local psychiatric facility, the warrant says.
Ye referred to the writings as “his memoir,” which begins with a disclaimer that it is a work of fiction, the arrest warrant says.
Advertisement
“In the document, Ye writes about committing a school shooting, and strategizes how to carry out the act. Ye also contemplates targeting an elementary school and says that he wants to be famous,” MCPD said in its news release. “A search warrant obtained by MCPD led to internet searches, drawings and documents related to threats of mass violence.”
MCPD said it was notified by the FBI about Ye’s alleged writings, which prompted a joint investigation by the two agencies.
Ye is being held at the Montgomery County Central Processing Unit awaiting a bond hearing. It is unclear if Ye has an attorney.
Ye was hospitalized in December 2022 for “threatening to ‘shoot up a school,’ homicidal, and suicidal ideations,” according to the arrest warrant. The student was then hospitalized for five months in 2023 at Johns Hopkins Pediatric Unit for “homicidal ideations.”
More recently on March 15, FBI agents interviewed a school counselor who worked with the student from late 2022 to early 2023 and said Ye would “express violent thoughts such as shooting up the school, wanting to hurt other people, and would smile while saying it,” according to the arrest warrant.
Advertisement
The student “did say he wanted to shoot up Wootton HS and ‘his elementary school,’ but never stated the name of the elementary school. The Counselor knows the school to be Lakewood Elementary,” the arrest warrant says.
In response, the school district has increased security as a precaution, specifically at Wootton High School because “of a valid concern of a school shooting,” the arrest warrant noted, adding that they hope it would serve as “a visual deterrent.”
Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) said it is aware of the arrest of a student from Wootton High. The student has not physically attended classes since Fall 2022 and has been enrolled in an online program, the district added.
“The charges are extremely serious, involving alleged threats to harm others,” the school system said in a statement. “We value and appreciate the close collaboration between MCPS and MCPD in this matter, which is an example of our shared commitment to identify and address potential threats with due process before they materialize.”
MCPS declined to speak more on the matter, citing student privacy laws. Police announced that a news conference is planned for Friday.
new video loaded: Kennedy Family Endorses President Biden
transcript
transcript
Kennedy Family Endorses President Biden
At a campaign rally in Philadelphia, members of the Kennedy family endorsed President Biden, rejecting one of their own, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent candidate.
I’m joined here today with my sisters, Kathleen and Rory, with Joe and Chris and Max. And with my hero, President Joe Biden. We want to make crystal clear our feeling that the best way forward for America is to re-elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to four more years. That’s right, the Kennedy family endorses Joe Biden for president.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25382021/V4_Pro_Beta_PressKit_LaunchImage.jpg)
