Last month, The New York Times reported that Santos had “embellished” parts of his employment and education history. Among his claims, which have since been debunked, are that he graduated from New York’s Baruch College, worked for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, and that he and his family owned a real estate portfolio with 13 properties.

But Santos resisted calls to resign following the revelations. His first week in the congressional chamber was met with mockery after videos of him sitting alone were shared widely on social media.

Amid the controversy, a fellow New York congressman, Democrat Ritchie Torres, has now highlighted one of five votes Santos was listed as casting in Congress in December, despite starting his position in the lower chamber only this week.

The Claim

A Wednesday tweet by Torres, which has been viewed more than 1.2 million times, said Santos had been “caught…’embellishing’” a vote on the December 2022 omnibus spending bill despite not being a congressman at that point.

The Facts

While Santos was surely not looking for any further accusations about not telling the truth, it does appear that voting attributed to him was not his.

The list that Torres shared was taken from Santos’ website and found under the tab “Votes and Legislation.”

Although his website has since been updated to include only his voting for a new House speaker this week, archives show that a different voting record was on his website just a few days ago.

Among the five December votes listed is the one on the omnibus bill (identified by Torres), which, as the clerk of the House shows, Santos did not vote on last month.

It’s not known what motive (if any) Santos or his team might have had for including these December votes on his website. Santos was obviously not in the chamber last month, and there seems to be little incentive for him to have included easily checked false information, amid the other accusations against him.

It’s possible that the table was copied from another House member as the basis for the current record of votes. Or it could have been an error caused by spreadsheet data taken from the House clerk.

In response to the tweet, some speculated as much, suggesting that the list may have been copy-pasted from another House member. That claim, or which representative the voting record might have belonged to, is so far unverified, not least due to the sheer number of congressional members for each motion listed.

Newsweek was unable to reach Santos by phone or through his website for comment.

However, for Torres to say Santos was “caught” implies that Santos intended to deliberately mislead through this action. At this point, that is unproven.

While we can’t rule out the possibility that this was a deliberate embellishment, it may simply be the result of human error.

Newsweek also reached out to Torres for comment.

The Ruling

Needs Context

Archives show there was a congressional voting record on Santos’ website for motions he did not vote on. It’s not clear if this record may have been for another member of Congress and, if so, which one.

However, whether the December voting was added as a deliberately misleading “embellishment” or was the result of human error has not been established. And any claims about motive are not verified.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team