New York Rep. George Santos' ex-boyfriend said the Republican, who is under investigation for deliberately lying about his history, will never resign, despite the fact that he is facing various investigations, including one into his finances.
When asked if he was surprised that Santos was elected to Congress, Pedro Vilarva told CNN's Erin Burnett that he wasn't.
"What he always looked for was fame and power," Vilarva said. "That's all he cared about and he got it."
"His ego is too big. He's not gonna resign," he added.
Vilarva claimed that he first met Santos when he was 18 years old, in 2014. Santos was married to a woman and 26 years old at the time. Soon after Vilarva received his high school diploma, they moved in together. Vilarva claimed that the romance ended because he grew suspicious of Santos after he frequently promised to take Vilarva to Hawaii and pop the question but never did.
Vilarva told CNN that he thinks Santos eventually stole his phone and sold it for money.
During the course of his relationship with Vilarva, Santos was married to a woman, but according to Vilarva, he didn't find out about it until after he left Santos' house.
"It was like a little shock for me," Vilarva said. "But then he used to say that he was going to get the divorce, he was getting the divorce - and never got the divorce. And then I went to find out that they only got the divorce in (2019)."
Vilarva also stated that he had been aware of some of Santos' lies for years, including the congressman's claims of having worked at the financial firm Citigroup.
"I already knew," he said, "because I never saw him working."
Inconsistencies in Santos' career and educational histories, as well as other public statements he has made regarding his life, have drawn attention. The first times Santos publicly addressed the topic were in interviews with WABC radio and the New York Post, where he admitted to making up some details.
"I am not a criminal. Not here, not abroad, in any jurisdiction in the world have I ever committed any crimes," Santos said in an interview with WABC radio host John Catsimatidis.
Santos also confessed that he never worked directly for Citigroup or Goldman Sachs, as he had previously claimed, but that he did work for them through his company, telling the New York Post that it was a "poor choice of words" to indicate he worked for them.
He also told the Post that despite claiming degrees from Baruch College and New York University, he never graduated from either.
