"Lies are breathtaking" - investigations into US Republicans

A criminal investigation has been launched into newly elected Republican US Congressman George Santos for forging his resume. The "lies and inconsistencies" associated with Santos are "simply breathtaking," said prosecutor Anne Donnelly in a statement released by several major US media outlets on Wednesday.

Nassau County residents "need to have an honest and accountable representative in Congress," she added. "No one is above the law and if a crime has been committed in this county, we will prosecute it."

Santos, who won a seat in the New York state midterm elections in November, admitted in an interview on Monday that he had falsified his résumé. Contrary to what was claimed, he never worked for the banks Goldman Sachs and Citigroup and never earned a university degree. In addition, Santos told the New York Post that, contrary to what was claimed during the election campaign, he was not Jewish, but Catholic.

Santos apologized for what he himself said had "embellished" his resume. However, Santos rejected calls from the Democratic Party to give up his seat in Congress. "I'm not a criminal," he told the New York Post.

Several members of the Democratic Party had urged Kevin McCarthy, the current Republican minority leader in the House of Representatives, to put Santos' expulsion to a vote if he didn't resign of his own accord.

Republican Santos had helped his party secure a narrow majority of 222 to 212 seats in the House of Representatives with his victory against his Democratic challenger Robert Zimmerman in the Democrat stronghold of New York in the midterm elections. In the Senate, the other chamber of Congress, the Democrats retained their majority.