What We Know: Newly-elected GOP Congressman admits to ’embellishing’ qualifications on his resume

Republican Rep.-elect George Santos of New York has admitted to “having embellished” the qualifications listed on his resume.

During two separate interviews with WABC radio and the New York Post, Santos admitted to the controversy but said that he broke no laws and has no plans to step down from his newly-elected seat.

“I am not a criminal. Not here, not abroad, in any jurisdiction in the world have I ever committed any crimes,” Santos told WABC radio host John Catsimatidis. “To get down to the nit and gritty, I’m not a fraud. I’m not a criminal who defrauded the entire country and made up this fictional character and ran for Congress. I’ve been around a long time. I mean, a lot of people know me. They know who I am. They’ve done business dealings with me.”

He added, “I’m not going to make excuses for this, but a lot of people overstate in their resumes, or twist a little bit… I’m not saying I’m not guilty of that.”

Santos also said that he did not actually work for the financial firms Citigroup and Goldman Sachs as his resume suggested, and only worked alongside them through his company.

He told the New York Post that he “didn’t graduate from any institution of higher learning” despite claiming to have degrees from Baruch College and New York University.

“I’m embarrassed and sorry for having embellished my resume,” Santos told the Post, chalking the poor choice up to doing “stupid things in life.”