Embattled Rep. George Santos started raising money into his campaign committee again last quarter, using most of the donor money flowing in to begin repaying a personal loan he made to his campaign last election.
A new fundraising report filed with the Federal Election Commission Friday shows that the campaign repaid the New York Republican $85,000 by the end of June for part of a $300,000 loan.
The filing also shows that Santos raised $133,000 from April through June, meaning more than half of the money his campaign raised went toward paying down that debt.
Santos announced earlier this year that he’s running for reelection, despite facing 13 federal charges accusing him of defrauding donors, using campaign money for personal expenses, fraudulently filing for unemployment benefits and misleading about his income.
Santos has said he’s not guilty of the charges against him. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the loan repayments.
Santos’ campaign entered April with $715,000 in debt, almost entirely from personal loans made in his name — though earlier this year, Santos amended his filings to state that $500,000 of those personal loans did not in fact come from his personal funds.
Despite only paying down $85,000 of those loans, Santos’ campaign now says in the new report that it is only $530,000 in debt. (It should be $630,000 if the other figures are accurate.)
The campaign spent little over the course of the second quarter besides making the loan repayment to Santos. Not including processing fees for online donations, he spent $1,000 on travel and lodging, and another $374 for “office internet” to a Georgia company that specializes in “customized recovery solutions for distressed and non-performing accounts receivable portfolios.”
Paying off loans with campaign contributions is neither illegal or uncommon. But it means that candidates are raising money from supporters and using it to repay their own personal debt, instead of using those donations to further the goals of the campaign.
During the first quarter of 2023, before he announced he was officially running for reelection, Santos raised just $5,000 into his campaign and spent $8,000.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
