FEC presses Santos to identify campaign treasurer

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is demanding Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) name a new treasurer for his campaign and several affiliated political committees, warning that a failure to do so will bar the groups from raising or spending any money.

“It is required that for any committee to conduct any business, they must have an active treasurer,” Jaime Amrhein, an assistant branch chief at the FEC, wrote in a Tuesday letter to Santos’s campaign. “Failure to appoint a treasurer will result in the inability of the committee to accept contributions and make disbursements.”

Santos’s now-former campaign treasurer Nancy Marks resigned her role last month amid questions about the campaign’s finances. The campaign filed paperwork naming longtime GOP operative Thomas Datwyler as its new treasurer, but shortly after, a lawyer for Datwyler told The Hill that he had not agreed to take the job. 

Federal law requires every political committee to have a treasurer in order to spend or take in money. Campaigns must appoint a new treasurer within 10 days of their former treasurer resigning. The letter from the FEC gives Santos’s campaign until March 21 to respond.

The Hill has reached out to Santos’s attorney for comment on the FEC’s requests.

Santos, a first-term congressman who flipped a Democratic-leaning district in November, has been mired in controversy since late last year after it was revealed that he had lied about his resume. 

Since then, he’s faced scrutiny over everything from his business dealings to his campaign’s financial practices, including the source of a pair of six-figure loans from the candidate and a series of campaign expenses for $199.99 — an amount that’s just two cents under the $200 threshold that would require the campaign to keep receipts or invoices.

Santos has so far avoided addressing questions about his campaign finances, telling reporters last month that he doesn’t “touch” the FEC filings.

“I don’t amend anything,” Santos said. “I don’t touch any of my FEC stuff. So don’t be disingenuous and report that I did, because you know that every campaign hires fiduciaries. So I’m not aware of that answer.”