When an outside firm hired by then-congressional hopeful George Santos in 2021 delivered a secret internal report detailing aspects of the candidate’s checkered background, several of his aides found it too much to stomach. They urged Santos to drop out, and when he refused, they quit. …

Portions of the report, published here for the first time, show that long before Santos’ election, questions had surfaced about his marriage, his family’s claimed link to the Holocaust, and his alleged ties to “companies that have been accused of fraud and scamming customers.”

[Most of the red flags have already surfaced, but it’s quite telling how many of them came up in this report before the election. The Congressional Leadership Fund pulled out after reading it, but Santos refused to step aside. Hindsight is always 20/20, but people around Santos had ample opportunity for foresight as well. — Ed]