A former roommate of Rep. George Santos (R-NY) said the truth-averse congressman took on a Jewish-sounding alias for online fundraisers because, according to Santos, “the Jews will give more if you’re a Jew.”
On the same day that the freshman congressman was rewarded with two committee assignments, despite a countless array of lies and fabrications, his one-time acquaintance Gregory Morey-Parker appeared on CNN to give some personal insight into Santos’ history of deception.
Morey-Parker, who’d previously described Santos’ “delusions of grandeur” to CNN, told Anderson Cooper on Tuesday evening that he knew the New York representative as Anthony Devolder when the two lived together for a few months. He then revealed that besides Devolder, a name Santos had used elsewhere, the newly minted GOP lawmaker would also refer to himself as Anthony Zabrovsky.
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“He used Zabrovsky for his Friends of Pets United, his GoFundMe,” Morey-Parker noted, referencing an animal charity that Santos claimed he ran years ago.
“He would say, ‘Oh, well, the Jews will give more if you’re a Jew,’” Morey-Parker continued. “So that is the name he used for his GoFundMes.”
It was first reported last month that Santos had utilized the “Anthony Zabrovsky” alias for his various online fundraisers.
Cooper asked what type of fundraisers he would have at that time, prompting Morey-Parker to bring up the fake pet charity’s activities before pointing out a recent report of Santos scamming a military veteran out of $3,000 that was supposed to go towards a life-saving surgery for the vet’s beloved service dog.
The 47-year-old veteran said Santos disappeared after the GoFundMe reached its fundraising goal, preventing the surgery from ever happening. After the dog died a year later, the veteran claimed he had to panhandle to pay for the dog’s euthanasia and cremation. Santos has denied accusations that he kept the money for himself.
Morey-Parker also reiterated to Cooper his claim that Santos stole his Burberry scarf and wore it at a “Stop the Steal” rally a day before the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.
“A stolen scarf to a steal-the-election rally,” Morey-Parker exclaimed. “You have to love the irony. And the audacity, quite frankly.”
The web of lies surrounding Santos has only grown since The New York Times reported last month that he had made up much of his resume and biography ahead of his electoral victory.
While Santos is currently under investigation over his shady campaign finances, and he has fibbed about everything from his college volleyball career to COVID to his mother’s 9/11-related death, his fabrications about his Jewish ancestry have earned him harsh bipartisan criticism.
After identifying as a “proud American Jew” whose grandparents survived the Holocaust, Santos would later insist he “never claimed to be Jewish” and instead meant he was “Jew-ish” after various media outlets found no evidence of Jewish lineage or heritage in his family.
