George Santos Likely Got Illegal Campaign Donation From Human Smuggler

George Santos could be facing even MORE problems with his campaign's finances, as it appears that he took a lofty donation from an Italian migrant smuggler that was kicked out of the United States years ago. Not only is a donation from a smuggler bad, but accepting a donation from a foreign national is strictly forbidden under campaign finance laws. Farron Cousins explains all of the campaign finance issues that Santos is now facing.

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*This transcript was auto-generated. Please excuse any typos.

Well, looks like George Santos, the embattled Republican from, uh, New York, who by the way, the Nassau County Republican Party that gave us George Santos to begin with, they actually called for him to resign yesterday. And Santos said, yeah, that ain't gonna happen. But before even that happened, a new report came out from the Daily Beast showing that, uh, oh, there's more campaign finance problems for Mr. Santos. Because as it turns out, Mr. Santos appears to have received campaign donations from a man by the name of Rocco, uh, Osano. And Mr. Osano had actually been expelled from the United States in 2019, had previously, uh, been charged on a, uh, uh, firearm possession. But he was expelled from the United States in 2019 after he was busted trying to smuggle migrants into the United States, along with $200,000 in cash that he had shoved into the walls of his pleasure yacht that he was using to smuggle migrants into the United States.

So a human smuggler, a foreign national, not a citizen of the United States, gave money to George Santo's campaign. You know, as a one election expert points out, there's a lot of gray area in campaign finance law, and I've actually said that a lot recently. Usually when talking about George Santos. But when it comes to taking money from foreign nationals, there is no gray area. If they are not a resident, a citizen of the United States of America, you can't take their direct cash contribution to your campaign. That is 100% illegal. But the connection between Santos and the, uh, OPIS San family is deeper than that because apparently Santos spent tens of thousands of dollars at a restaurant called Ill Sabaco. I believe. I, uh, what is here? Sorry about that. Iba Iba that is owned by the Eano family. Tens of thousands of dollars there in campaign expenses. He's good friends with the family. The restaurant, by the way, is run by, uh, Rocco, aas so's niece and nephew. So, yeah, that, uh, relationship with the human smuggling guy is much deeper than just him giving cash to Santo's campaign. So let's recap here. Here is what we know about the ongoing legal problems with George Santo's campaign finances. First and foremost, the new information. Taking money from a human smuggler that is not a citizen of the United States. I mean, it's bad enough to take money from a foreign national because that is illegal,

But when you throw in that he's a human smuggler, um, just kinda amps up the holy crap factor of it. Second thing, your staffer impersonated Kevin McCarthy's, chief of staff to dupe wealthy donors into giving money to your campaign. Okay, so there's two. The third one, all of the miraculous $199 and 99 cent expenses on your finance report, which comes just 1 cent under the limit to where you have to turn in a receipt, which could indicate that the money wasn't actually spent the way you say it was, especially because you had $199 and 99 cents, uh, spent on Delta. Show me where you can get a flight or where you can buy something from Delta for exactly $199 and 99 cents. You also had a $199 and 99 cents expense from Uber. Hmm. Where like, why, why was it just as expensive to take an Uber as a flight from Delta? Like none of it makes any sense. Santos is now under investigation, and I love this by local authorities in Nassau County, by state authorities in New York, possibly by the Office of Congressional Ethics. The federal government says they may be looking into it. Oh, and by the way, international authorities in Brazil are also working on getting Santos extradited down there to face trial for stealing checks. So yeah, he says he is not gonna resign. So get the popcorn out cuz this is probably not going to end well at all for Mr. Santos.