George Santos said his mother was in World Trade Center on 9/11, but records show she was in Brazil: report

Freshman New York Rep. George Santos has been caught making false representations about his background, education, and work experience during his successful congressional campaign, but a new report indicates that the Republican also fabricated a story about his mother surviving the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center.

Santos’s campaign website features a section about his family background, which includes a claim that his mother was working in the World Trade Center when planes flew into the towers.

“George’s mother was in her office in the South Tower on September 11, 2001, when the horrific events of that day unfolded. She survived the tragic events on September 11th, but she passed away a few years later when she lost her battle to cancer,” the website says.

According to reporting from the Washington Post, however, not only was the congressman’s mother Fatima Devolder not at the World Trade Center that day, she was not even in the United States. The Post, citing visa records obtained from a Freedom of Information Act request by certified public accountant Alex Calzareth, reported that Devolder applied to enter the U.S. from Brazil in 2003 and that her application stated she had last been in the U.S. in 1999.

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TOPSHOT – Newly elected Republican Representative from New York George Santos attends the US House of Representatives voting for new speaker at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, January 4, 2023. – The new Republican-led House was engulfed in crisis for a second day running Wednesday after a fresh round of voting failed to produce a winner in the race for speaker. 
(OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP)

Fox News reached out to Santos’s office for comment on the report, but they did not immediately respond.

The report comes as Santos is embroiled in controversy over a number of claims he has made about his background. The congressman has already admitted to lying about his education and work experience, and he has been accused of lying about being Jewish – something Santos has denied doing, reportedly telling the New York Post he only said he was “Jew-ish” after learning about his mother’s family background.

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On Tuesday, Democratic New York Reps. Ritchie Torres, whose district includes most of the South Bronx, and Dan Goldman, whose district includes part of Manhattan and Brooklyn, filed a formal complaint with the House Ethics Committee against Santos for allegedly violating the Ethics in Government Act. 

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Santos has faced growing calls for his resignation from Democrats and Republicans alike, including from the Nassau County GOP, which operates within Santos’s congressional district. It was the first major Republican group to call for his resignation.

Still, Santos has remained adamant that he will not resign.