TRANSITION — Abigail O’Brien will be government relations manager
for the city of Mesa, Ariz., covering the federal portfolio. She
previously was chief of staff for Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.).
Not mentioned in press release her new annual salary
www.mesanow.org
Abigail O’Brien Joins Mesa Government Relations Team
2 minutes
January 3, 2023 at 1:57 pm
After eight years on Capitol Hill, longtime Arizona congressional
staffer Abigail O'Brien is heading back to her home state to join the
City of Mesa Government Relations Team. She will serve as Government
Relations Manager primarily focused on federal affairs. Ms. O'Brien was
most recently Chief of Staff and Communications Director for
Representative Ann Kirkpatrick.
"I am thrilled to have
Abigail join our Government Relations team! Abigail joins the City of
Mesa with significant knowledge, experience and professionalism," said
Government Relations Director Miranda DeWitt. "Abigail stands out for
her experience, dedication and results-driven efforts. She will play a
vital role in our office."
In addition to overseeing
day-to-day operations for Rep. Kirkpatrick's Office, Abigail was
instrumental in tracking legislative issues impacting Arizona,
developing outreach and lobbying strategies and overseeing the drafting
and introduction of congressional bills.
"I'm honored
to join the City of Mesa's Government Relations team. After managing the
office of Arizona's Appropriator, Rep. Kirkpatrick, I am excited to
transition my federal experience into tangible and meaningful advocacy
on behalf of the City of Mesa," said Abigail O'Brien. "I can't wait to
get to work and contribute to the beautiful and growing City of Mesa."
Abigail holds a Bachelor of Science, Journalism and Political Science from Northern Arizona University.
Kirkpatrick announced that her office has returned more than $6,700,000 to the people of southern Arizona. Rep. Kirkpatrick and her staff have closed nearly ...
Jason Aldean is mocked after Donald Trump kissed wife on the forehead at New Year's Eve party
Deirdre Durkan-simonds
'Your expression says a lot!' Country singer Jason Aldean is
mocked online after his wife Brittany posted awkward snap of Donald
Trump kissing her forehead
, updated
Jason Aldean was mercilessly mocked on social media
after his wife shared a photo of Donald Trump giving her a forehead kiss
at a New Year's Eve bash
In the
eyebrow-raising snap, Trump held onto Brittany's shoulders and 'got a
good long look down' her chest, according to one commenter
'Jason
Aldean, how’d you feel about this? Your expression says a lot. Trump
got a nice view though,' one Instagram user wrote under the post
Despite
many speculating that the country singer appeared displeased by the
forehead kiss, there seemed to be no animosity or tension between the
men
Jason Aldean was mercilessly mocked on social media after his wife shared a photo of Donald Trump giving her a forehead kiss at a New Year's Evebash.
After ringing in 2023 with the former president, 76, and Melania Trump,
52, the Dirt Road Anthem hitmaker, 45, was trolled for his spouse's
Instagram post, featuring them dining and dancing at Mar-a-Lago resort
in Palm Beach, Florida.
While Brittany,
33, described the party as a 'fairy-tale ending to 2022' in her
caption, many were quick to call out her spouse's 'p**sed and surprised'
expression as Trump planted a kiss on the top of her head.
Too friendly? Country singer Jason Aldean was mercilessly mocked on
social media after his wife shared a photo of Donald Trump giving her a
forehead kiss at a New Year's Eve party
In
the eyebrow-raising snap, Trump held onto Brittany's shoulders and 'got a
good long look down' her chest, according to one commenter.
'@Jason_Aldean.
How’d you feel about this? Your expression says a lot. Trump got a nice
view though,' one Instagram user wrote under the post.
Another
commented: 'Aldean’s expression is hilarious. It’s a cross between
displeasure and anger. Trump would screw ole Jason over in a heartbeat
but there he is. What a cluck.' . ." READ MORE
The North Shore Leader
wrote in September, when few others were covering Santos, about his
“inexplicable rise” in reported net worth, from essentially nothing in
2020 to as much as $11 million two years later. The story noted other oddities about the self-described gay Trump
supporter with Jewish heritage, who would go on to flip New York’s 3rd
Congressional District from blue to red, and is now under investigation by authorities for misrepresenting his background to voters.
". . .It was the stuff national
headlines are supposed to be built on: A hyperlocal outlet like the
Leader does the legwork, regional papers verify and amplify the story,
and before long an emerging political scandal is being broadcast coast
to coast.
✓ But that
system, which has atrophied for decades amid the destruction of news
economies, appears to have failed completely this time.
A tiny paper broke the George Santos scandal but no one paid attention
Sarah Ellison
6 - 8 minutes
"Months before the New York Times
published a December article suggesting Rep.-elect George Santos
(R-N.Y.) had fabricated much of his résumé and biography, a tiny
publication on Long Island was ringing alarm bells about its local
candidate.
The North Shore Leader
wrote in September, when few others were covering Santos, about his
“inexplicable rise” in reported net worth, from essentially nothing in
2020 to as much as $11 million two years later.
The
story noted other oddities about the self-described gay Trump supporter
with Jewish heritage, who would go on to flip New York’s 3rd
Congressional District from blue to red, and is now under investigation by authorities for misrepresenting his background to voters.
✓ “Interestingly,
Santos shows no U.S. real property in his financial disclosure,
although he has repeatedly claimed to own ‘a mansion in Oyster Bay Cove’
on Tiffany Road and ‘a mansion in the Hamptons’ on Dune Road,” managing
editor Maureen Daly wrote in the Leader. “For a man of such alleged
wealth, campaign records show that Santos and his husband live in a
rented apartment, in an attached rowhouse in Queens.”
The Leader reluctantly endorsed
Santos’s Democratic opponent the next month. “This newspaper would like
to endorse a Republican,” it wrote, but Santos “is so bizarre,
unprincipled and sketchy that we cannot,” adding, “He boasts like an
insecure child — but he’s most likely just a fabulist — a fake.”
✓ It was the stuff national headlines are supposed to be built on: A
hyperlocal outlet like the Leader does the legwork, regional papers
verify and amplify the story, and before long an emerging political
scandal is being broadcast coast to coast.
But
that system, which has atrophied for decades amid the destruction of
news economies, appears to have failed completely this time.
Despite
a well-heeled and well-connected readership — the Leader’s publisher
says it counts among its subscribers Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and
Jesse Watters and several senior people at Newsday, a once-mighty Long
Island-based tabloid that has won 19 Pulitzers — no one followed its
story before Election Day.
When
Santos apologized for “embellishing my résumé,” in a New York Post
interview published Monday, he also vowed to serve out his term as a
member of Congress.
Local
news doesn’t get much more local than the Leader. A weekly published
and primarily run by Grant Lally, an attorney whose parents bought it in
the late 1990s, most of the newspaper’s staff works part time and holds
down other jobs to pay the bills. “Nobody can survive on local papers
alone,” Lally said in an interview.
Lally
was particularly well-prepared to cover the race for New York’s 3rd
District. He had run for the seat himself in 1994, 1996 and again in
2014. A lifelong Republican, Lally was George W. Bush’s floor manager in
Miami during the 2000 presidential election recount.
The
Leader’s staff, which includes students and retirees, all are steeped
in the largely wealthy local communities on the North Shore of Long
Island, which gives them access to local political gossip. “We can boil
that down very quickly,” Lally said.
A
few years ago, Lally said, he went to lunch with Santos, who was
soliciting support for his political career. “Right from the start,
there was something off with him,” he recalled.
Santos
told Lally that his family was from Belgium. Years later, Lally said,
he watched Santos on the campaign trail “talking about his grandparents
who had fled the Holocaust from Ukraine.” “It was just a flagrant,
blatant concoction,” Lally said.
Lally
has stayed in touch with his former staffers from his political
campaigns, who would sometimes call him to gossip about local elections
over the spring and summer. “You wouldn’t believe what we are seeing
about Santos,” Lally recalled being told on some of those calls.
One
tip came from a local home builder who said he had driven Santos around
Long Island to look at mansions the candidate claimed to own and wanted
to renovate. But Santos wouldn’t let the builder inside any of the
homes, Lally said. He claimed he had tenants that prevented them from
entering.
Another call
came from a state senator who said a house in the Hamptons that Santos
claimed to own was worth far less than the candidate said and was owned
by someone else anyway. These tips helped inform the Leader’s reporting
and its editorial, which were deeply skeptical of Santos’s claims of
sudden riches.
“We
expected it to pop a lot more than it did,” Lally said. For one, he
thought that Santos’s opponent, Robert Zimmerman (D), would have made
more of the Leader’s endorsement and “pushed” the contradictions his
newspaper uncovered into larger publications such as Newsday and the New
York Times.
Zimmerman
told The Washington Post there were “many red flags that were brought to
the attention of many folks in the media” but that “frankly, a lot of
folks in the media are saying they didn’t have the personnel, time or
money to delve further” into the story. “This experience has shown me
just how important it is for everyone to support local media.”
Kim
Como, a spokeswoman for Newsday, did not answer specific questions
about the paper’s coverage of Santos but said in a statement: “We are
continuing to cover the Santos story every day.”
It’s possible that theLeader’s
reporting fell into a void in part because there are fewer papers to
cover the news than in the past. The number of journalists has declined
by 60 percent since 2005, according to government statistics.
✓ Research
from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University this
year found that on average two newspapers are disappearing in the United
States every week. The nation has lost more than a quarter of its
newspapers since 2005 and is on track to lose a third by 2025. There are
now more than 1,600 counties with only one newspaper, typically a
weekly.
“Local
journalists are kind of like having beat cops walking the street,” said
Tim Franklin, senior associate dean and professor at the Medill School.
“Just as good beat cops can help keep a neighborhood safer, the presence
of local journalists helps to keep our politics more honest and our
government more accountable.”
Franklin
predicts that “if we don’t fix the crisis in local news, we’re going to
see more George Santos-type cases and instances of politicians going
unchecked.”
Santos and his representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
Ashley Fetters Maloy and Azi Paybarah contributed to this report.
The talented Mr. Santos: A congressman-elect’s unraveling web of deception
Azi Paybarah, Camila DeChalus
12 - 15 minutes
The
Republican who won a congressional seat on Long Island before his
claims of being a wealthy, biracial, Ukrainian descendant of Holocaust
survivors were debunked had, for a while, been generally consistent
about two details in his improbable life: He has long said his first
name is George and his last name is Santos.
But not always.
Before
George Santos, 34, made a name for himself in politics, he had insisted
on being called Anthony — one of his middle names — and often used his
mother’s maiden name, Devolder, eventually incorporating a company in
Florida with that name.
“He
hated that we called him George,” a former friend and onetime co-worker
said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid being associated
with him publicly. “His whole family called him Anthony. He wanted to be
called Anthony. He would use the name Anthony Devolder.”
With
echoes of the fabulist protagonist at the heart of “The Talented Mr.
Ripley” book and movie, Santos has spun an elaborate web of lies and
deceptions about his identity and his past, according to acquaintances,
public records, media reports and, in some cases, by his own admission.
He also claims to have suddenly come into millions of dollars in wealth
over the past 18 months, even as the financial data company Dun &
Bradstreet estimated in July that his private family firm, the Devolder
Organization, only had $43,688 in revenue.
He said he is part Black. He said he is the grandson of Holocaust survivors. He claimed he helped develop “carbon capture technology.”
He claimed to have worked at companies that never employed him. He
claimed to be a graduate of two universities, only to admit that he has
no college degree at all. He even said his parents’ financial hardship
forced him to leave the prestigious Horace Mann School in the Bronx
“months” before he could graduate. But that claim and numerous others
have either been shown to be false or lacking evidence by The Washington
Post and other news organizations.
Even
by the low standards for truth-telling in politics, the scope of
Santos’s falsehoods has been breathtaking. It has surprised Democrats
who researched him and missed so many details, as well as Republicans
who vouched for him.
In
an unsuccessful House race in 2020 and his successful race for New
York’s 3rd Congressional District in November, Santos pitched himself as
a gay man of Brazilian descent at home in the Republican Party of
Donald Trump. He spoke
at a rally in D.C. on Jan. 5, 2021, telling the assembled crowd one day
before the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol: “Who here is ready to
overturn the election for Donald Trump?”
In interviews as a congressional candidate, he described himself as “the American Dream.” . . . READ MORE
5 days ago · Howie Kurtz on no one paying attention to the small newspaper that broke the George Santos scandal, House Democrats releasing Trump's tax ...
Rep.-elect George Santos’ “family firm” that supposedly managed $80
million in assets was initially registered at a gynecologist’s office in
a Florida office park.
That is one of many curious details about Santos’ business dealings
that TPM uncovered during an in-depth analysis this week. Santos, a New
York Republican who is set to take office next month, has had aspects of
his professional resume and personal biography called into question by a series of reports, including an exposé in the New York Times. Local news outlets have also been all over the sketchiness in Santos’ background for months.
Santos and several of his colleagues have ties to an alleged
multimillion-dollar “ponzi scheme” and a complex network of companies.
Among his associates, we found a businessman who claims to have the
secrets to earning massive sums with a few keyboard clicks, a shady CEO
who allegedly stole money to pay off seven-figure credit card bills, and
the body armor wearing, QAnon slogan spouting“Spartan warrior” who ran against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) in this year’s election.
Two of the firms linked to Santos and his associates are supposed
strategy firms that have earned money from Republican congressional
campaigns. One took in over $110,000 from the unsuccessful challenge to
Ocasio-Cortez. The other did work for a candidate who claims to have
never heard of the business.
It’s a dizzyingly complex paper trail that reveals a network of
companies operated out of a condo and the gynecological practice in
Florida. At the center of it all is Santos’ supposed “family” firm,
which, he’s suggested in financial disclosures, helped him earn a
massive raise in recent years just as he poured money into his own run
for Congress.
Some of the prior reporting on Santos by both Mother Jones and The Daily Beast
delved into his business ties. However, our research has unearthed a
slew of new details. Santos and his attorney did not respond to multiple
requests for comment on this story.
Santos was elected in November to represent New York’s Third
Congressional District, which includes parts of Queens and Long Island.
Santos, who also mounted an unsuccessful bid for the seat in 2020,
positioned himself as an unapologetic member of the GOP’s MAGA wing.
During his first campaign, Santos made a trip to the White House when
President Trump was in office. He also visited the former president’s
private Florida beach club, Mar-a-Lago. Santos tried to adopt some of
Trump’s businessman bravado. He touted himself
as “a seasoned Wall Street financier and investor.” That description is
based in part on a college degree the school has no record of him
receiving and stints at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup that the Times found
were not confirmed by the companies in question. Santos’ branding as a
“financier and investor” also stems from the “Devolder Organization,” a
relatively new firm with a far less illustrious history than the other
companies on his resume.
During his race, Santos’ website described him
as a “managing member” at “his family’s firm, Devolder Organizations.”
That claim has since been deleted from his online biography. Devolder is
Santos’ late mother’s last name and he has, at times, gone by “George
Devolder Santos.” His campaign site initially claimed Santos was in
charge of the “asset allocations” for $80 million that the company
managed.
The “More and More Network”
The “Devolder Organization LLC” was formed in Florida in May 2021.
Its original articles of organization identified its address as one used
by a law firm in an office park in Melbourne, Florida. Public records
don’t show other members of Santos’ family officially tied to the firm.
Instead, the organization has multiple connections to former colleagues
of Santos’ at the controversial investment company where he previously
worked including a purported business guru who promotes an array of
get-rich schemes online.
At the time of its formation, the registered agent for the Devolder
Organization was listed as “D&D International Investment Services
Inc.” (D&D), which was based at a different building in that same
office park. Records show D&D was first incorporated in 2007 and led by two directors: DeVaughn Dames, a self-described “seasoned executive with two passports,” and Odette Daley, a gynecologist whose practice has earned decidedly mixed reviews. The pair, who are married according to multiplerecords, initially operated their company out of a residence before moving its “principal place of business” to the office park in 2010. In the park, D&D was headquartered at the same address as Daley’s gynecological practice, which has since closed.
D&D continued to be based out of Daley’s medical office even after she filed paperwork
to resign her position as a director of the company in February 2020.
Daley, who continued to be identified as a vice director at the firm in
its 2021 and 2022 annual reports, did not respond to a message left at
her office. In its 2022 annual report, D&D’s “principal place of
business” was identified as the address of a mailbox rental company.
A slew of other businesses are linked to Dames. In addition to
D&D, records show Dames has been listed as an officer or registered
agent for 18 different entities in Florida including “BAHAMAS TRADERS
CORP.,” “IMPORT EXPORT LOGISTICS GROUP LLC,” and “DEVAUGHN DAMES
INTERNATIONAL LLC.” Many of the businesses associated with Dames use the
address of Daley’s gynecological practice; however, at times, documents
are filed with slight variations of the street address, including the
law firm building that once appeared in the paperwork for the Devolder
Organization. Dames did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Dames has a prolificpresence on socialmedia where he touts his various ventures and discusses strategies for wealth creation. He also offers “coaching programs” for aspiring entrepreneurs through something called the “More and More Network.” Dames starred in a Facebook video
associated with that program that had some spelling and grammatical
errors in the title: “Buye Business with Other People Money.” In that
clip, Dames boasted of his ability to find “lenders” without having
capital up front.
“You can buy businesses without money, but when you come to the table you’re going to need somebody with money,” Dames said.
Dr. DeVaughn Dames hosts a meetup.
Dames also pointed to the “forex space” as “another arena for
individuals who would like to get cash on hand” and indicated he offers a
“30 day bootcamp” for those who would like to profit on the foreign
exchange market. Dames suggested this can be incredibly lucrative with
almost no effort.
“You can do side hustles, you can do side gigs, all of that’s good
and well,” Dames said. “I prefer to come to the computer, hit a couple
of buttons, and make anywhere from 4K to 20K a month in this space.”
Santos also seems to know a thing or two about wealth creation. In
required disclosure documents filed in conjunction with his run for
office in 2020, Santos claimed to have made
a salary of $55,000 and a bonus of $5,000 that year working for a
financial consultant, Linkbridge Investors. Santos did not identify any
other assets in that disclosure. By 2022, Santos indicated he earned a
$750,000 salary and between $1 million and $5 million in dividends from
the “Devolder Organization” in both this year and last. The sudden
wealth apparently enabled Santos to loan over half a million dollars to his campaign committee as he ran for Congress.
A ‘Classic Ponzi Scheme’
The “Devolder Organization” is not Santos’ only connection to Dames.
Before Devolder was formed, both men worked with a supposed asset
management firm that has been embroiled in mounting legal troubles and
allegations of misappropriating millions of dollars in investor funds.
In July 2020, Santos was hired as regional director of a Florida-based investment firm called Harbor City. On a Linkedin page, Dames identified himself as the chief financial officer of Harbor City from July 2019 to May 2021.
According to a complaint
filed in a Florida court by the Securities and Exchange Commission the
month before Dames’ apparent departure, Harbor City was operated in “a
classic Ponzi scheme fashion” by its founder and CEO, Jonathan Maroney.
In the complaint, the SEC accused Maroney of misappropriating over $6
million in investor funds. No other Harbor City employees were named in
the complaint. Maroney, who did not respond to a request for comment,
allegedly used some of the more than $17 million raised by the company
“to enrich himself and his family” including by buying a “waterfront
home,” a Mercedes, and by paying off credit card bills. While that case
is ongoing, in court documents highlighted by Mother Jones, Maroney indicated he “is currently the target in a related criminal investigation.”
Earlier this year, Santos told the Daily Beast
he left Harbor City in March 2021, the month before the charges were
filed. In his comments to the site, Santos indicated he was unaware of
any misconduct at the company and said, “I’m as distraught and disturbed
as everyone else is.”
While he may have left Harbor City behind, Santos still has ties to Dames. On Tuesday, in documents highlighted by TPM’s Josh Marshall, Santos filed a reinstatement for the “Devolder Organization,” which as Mother Jones noted, revived the company
after it was dissolved for failing to file an annual report. The
document also removed any mention of D&D and the various office park
addresses. It identified Santos himself as the company’s registered
agent and claimed the Devolder Organization had its “principal place of
business” at a three-bedroom condominium on Florida’s Merritt Island.
Santos also listed the condo’s address as his own, which Marshall noted
creates “some tension” with his representation of a district roughly
1,100 miles away in New York. The condo’s owners couldn’t be reached. A
woman who is its current resident based on public records searches did
not respond to a request for comment.
Political Strategy Firms
The reinstatement document seemingly cut Dames out of the Devolder
Organization; however, the company actually remains linked to Dames.
Devolder’s new address also ties it — and Santos — to multiple
Republican campaigns.
Records show that the Devolder Organization isn’t the only firm
headquartered at the Merritt Island condo. There are two other active
companies based at the address: “Jayson Benoit & Associates Inc.” and “Redstone Strategies LLC.” Those firms are both linked in ways that go beyond their shared address at the condo.
U.S.
Representative-elect George Santos (R-NY) speaks at the Republican
Jewish Coalition annual leadership meeting on November 19, 2022 in Las
Vegas, Nevada. The meeting comes on the heels of former President Donald
Trump becoming the first candidate to declare his intention to seek the
GOP nomination in the 2024 presidential race. (Photo by Scott
Olson/Getty Images)
Jayson Benoit & Associates Inc. is the registered agent for
Redstone Strategies and the “Devolder Organization LLC” is an authorized
member, though it is identified as having a Queens address in the
company’s paperwork. According to Mother Jones,
Jayson Benoit was the former chief technology officer of Harbor City.
Jayson Benoit & Associates Inc. was first associated with the condo
address in the company’s April 2022 annual report. Previously, the
company, which was incorporated in 2020, was based in the same office
park that was the first home of the Devolder Organization and Dames was
its registered agent.
Two firms associated with Benoit have been paid by Republican congressional campaigns in New York.
Between June and December 2021, RED STRATEGIES USA, LLC, which was formed in Florida that same year, received 76 payments totalling over $110,000 from the campaign of Tina Forte, a right-wing activist who was badly beaten by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) last month.
Like Santos, Forte is a proud MAGA Republican. Both Santos and Forte
also reportedly attended the protests against former President Trump’s
loss that took place in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021. Federal
Election Commission records indicate
Dames was the treasurer of Forte’s campaign, which was based out of the
Florida office park. Forte did not respond to a request for comment on
this story.
Along with Benoit, records show that Dames’ firm, D&D, the
Devolder Organization, and another company, “PAUL NICOLINI AND
ASSOCIATES INC” were all authorized to manage and control Red
Strategies. Paul Nicolini was a regional director at Harbor City. His firm was based at the office park
and had D&D as its registered agent. In a phone call on Thursday
evening, Nicolini hung up immediately after hearing the call was from a
reporter.
“I’m not interested. Thanks,” Nicolini said.
Redstone Strategies LLC, the firm linked to both Benoit and the
Devolder Organization, has also been paid by a congressional campaign.
On April 30 of this year, Redstone received $1,160 from the campaign of
Robert Cornicelli, an “America First” Republican who lost a primary race
in the district adjacent to Santos’.
Reached by phone on Thursday, Cornicelli indicated he was completely
unaware of Redstone Strategies and Benoit. Cornicelli was apparently
dismayed to be associated with Santos. Cornicelli said he would follow
up on the matter with his campaign treasurer.
“I’m just a regular frigging army guy who tried to run,” Cornicelli said. “I don’t know these people.”
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