Truth-allergic congressman George Santos—or Anthony Devolder, depending on who’s listening—appeared at a 2021 Stop the Steal rally just one day before the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. And, according to a former friend and roommate, he was decked out in a stolen Burberry scarf as he gave his speech.
Santos, a pro-Trump New York Republican representing parts of Queens and Long Island, seems to have fabricated just about every aspect of his background, including his personal, educational, and work histories. He defeated Democrat Robert Zimmerman in November 2022, and succeeds Democrat Tom Suozzi, the outgoing representative for Santos’ district, who called the 34-year-old freshman legislator a “con man.”
On Jan. 5, 2021, after losing the 2020 congressional election to Suozzi, Santos addressed a crowd in Washington, D.C. at a “Stop the Steal ‘coalition pre-rally,’” the day before supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol to disrupt Congress’ certification of the 2020 election. They were motivated by Trump’s insidious lie that a massive conspiracy had thrown the election to Joe Biden.
ADVERTISEMENT
There, Santos untruthfully insisted that he, himself, had also been robbed of a victory, all while donning an allegedly hot piece of neckwear.
In an interview with local news outlet Patch, Santos’ former roommate, Gregory Morey-Parker, said he was “100 percent” sure the scarf Santos wore at the rally in fact belonged to him. The freshman legislator swiped it in 2020, during a period Morey-Parker had rented a room from Santos in Queens, he said, noting that the scarf had been a gift and that he recognized it easily because it was “lighter than regular camel check.”
“If you’re from New York, you know what they did to me,” Santos, dressed in allegedly stolen property, told the crowd. “They did to me what they did to Donald Trump. They stole my election.”
A second roommate, Yasser Rabello, confirmed Morey-Parker’s story to Patch, providing contemporaneous text messages in which the two discussed the scarf and a shirt Santos also allegedly stole. The two previously told Patch that they discovered phones, checks, and pricey dress shirts missing, as well, while they lived with Santos.
Morey-Parker spotted Santos wearing one of his shirts in an Instagram post, he told Patch. In a text message shared with the outlet, Morey-Parker expressed outrage to Rabello over the alleged theft.
“[H]e posted a picture wearing my 500 dollar shirt he stole from me,” the message read. “I’m pissed.”
“That shirt under the suit?” Rabello replied.
“No on Instagram,” Morey-Parker wrote back. “I blocked him though.”
“How have u been?” Rabello responded. “I think he also stole one of my shirts. Armani.”
Santos has offered various explanations for his seemingly endless stream of misleading, or patently false, claims, without actually clarifying any of the underlying issues.
Party leaders in New York have recently begun calling for Santos, who has been seen during his first days in Congress cozying up to GOP extremists such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, to resign. He is under investigation by federal prosecutors as well as New York Attorney General Letitia James, and is facing criminal charges over a stolen checkbook in Brazil.
