George Santos now indicates $625K of loans to his campaign might not be 'personal'

New campaign disclosures from embattled Rep. George Santos suggest that at least $625,000 in campaign loans he had previously reported as self-funded might not be sourced from his "personal funds."

Campaign finance experts say Santos, R-N.Y., may be violating campaign finance laws by not properly disclosing the original sources of those loans.

In a series of amendments filed on Tuesday, Santos marked two loans that he had previously reported as loans from himself -- $500,000 from March 2022 and $125,000 from October 2022 -- as not from "personal funds from the candidate."

In a previous version of his campaign disclosure, the $500,000 was reported as a loan from George Anthony Devolder-Santos, with a checked box indicating it was from "personal funds of the candidate."

But in an amendment to that report filed on Tuesday, that box was left unchecked.

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Similarly, in another amendment filed on Tuesday, the $125,000 loan was reported as a self-loan from Santos but it had an unmarked box now indicating that it's not from his personal funds. That loan was previously reported under the contributions section, with a memo that it was a self-loan from Santos.

Brendan Fischer, a campaign finance expert and the deputy executive director of Documented, said a campaign loan reported under a candidate but not marked as "personal funds of the candidate" usually means that the loan is secured through a bank or another person.

Under campaign finance laws, disclosures of such loans are required to be accompanied by the original source of the loans as well as the due date and the interest rate, Fischer said.

But Santos' amended filings did not disclose any of that information.

Santos declined to comment on the changes when asked by reporters outside his office on Wednesday: "I have no comment for you on that ... I have no clue on what you are talking about," he said.

Fischer said Santos' new amendments "make no sense" and added that "unchecking the box is not going to absolve Santos from any legal liabilities."