Republican US congressman George Santos has been at the centre of a web of extraordinary revelations and accusations – covering everything from his heritage to jobs he simply never held.

On Wednesday, the 34-year-old was arrested in New York on federal charges of fraud, money laundering and theft of public funds.

But the controversy surrounding Santos goes beyond today’s charges and back to after he was elected to represent New York’s 3rd Congressional District in November last year.

He was accused of fabricating parts of his CV while running for Congress, and has refused to resign, despite calls to from his critics.

While he denies some of the allegations made against him, he has admitted that some of his CV claims were lies.

Here’s a round-up of Santos’s claims, how we got here and why Republicans “cannot afford to lose” his seat.

Who is George Santos?

It’s a seemingly simple question, but one that is becoming increasingly difficult to get a straight answer to – here is what we know for sure.

The Brazilian-American was elected in November and became the first openly gay Republican to win a House seat as a non-incumbent.

While his victory caused a buzz around Capitol Hill, it was soon dimmed by allegations which started in December.

A New York Times investigation found a number of false claims Santos made on his CV including lies over his education and previous jobs.

From there, it’s all unravelled.

His responses have varied, too. He has admitted that some were lies, rejected others and has backtracked on a few as well.

He’s ‘Jew-ish’ not Jewish

Santos has made conflicting remarks over being Jewish, taking part in a drag performance in Brazil and the circumstances around his mother’s death.

So let’s start with his heritage.

After his victory, he told the Republican Jewish Coalition summit the election meant that “now there will be three” Jewish Republican members of Congress.

But then afterwards, he backtracked and told the New York Post he “never claimed to be Jewish”, and said he was Catholic, adding: “Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background, I said I was ‘Jew-ish’.”

He said 9/11 ‘claimed his mother’s life’

It’s also quite confusing when you take a look at the conflicting reports over the death of Santos’s mother, Fatima Caruso Devolder.

While running for Congress in 2021, Santos tweeted that the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York “claimed his mother’s life”.

Yet on his campaign website, Santos said his mother was in her office in the South Tower on the day of the terrorist attack but “survived” and died “a few years” later from cancer.

However, records obtained by Sky’s US partner NBC News – as well as reports by the Washington Post citing immigration records – suggested Ms Devolder had not even been living in the US at the time of the attack and was in fact living in Rio de Janeiro.

He has not publicly commented on that since.

‘Sue me for having a life’

Now on to another claim, about the congressman’s performance at a drag show.

A Brazilian performer, who uses the drag name Eula Rochard, told Reuters she befriended the now-congressman in 2005 in Brazil.

She said in 2008, he competed in a drag beauty pageant in Rio using the drag name Kitara Ravache.

While the congressman first called the reports “categorically false” on Twitter, when confronted on camera, he told US channel ABC7 – “I was young and I had fun at a festival – sue me for having a life.”

The Trump effect

Political strategist Rina Shah said only a “handful” of Republicans are calling for Santos’s resignation and his behaviour echoes the “Trump effect”.

The former senior staffer to two Republican Congress members told Sky News: “The situation certainly highlights the Donald Trump effect.

“[It’s] the impact of the 45th President – a real style of running to just regularly make claims to be boastful in a way of things that were simply not true and proven to be untrue.”

She added that Santos has “taken on” that style “in a defiant manner that says ‘come and get me because even if you try to get me, I’ll just continue to lie about it’.”

Despite the lies, Ms Shah said no top Republican will take action against him because they “cannot afford to lose” his House seat.

The Republicans won a razor-thin majority in the House following the midterms and she warned that Santos’s removal could endanger the seat.

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he would withhold judgment on Santos, saying: “In America, you’re innocent until proven guilty.”

He didn’t work on Wall Street

While the list of accusations against Santos has grown, he has admitted to lying about some things.

On an earlier version of his campaign website, Santos was described as a “seasoned Wall Street financier” and claimed he had a finance career working at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.

The New York Times investigation found neither institution had any record of his employment. He admitted to lying about his education and the roles at the two firms and told the New York Post: “My sins here are embellishing my resume. I’m sorry.”

Stealing from a disabled veteran

But there are some cases where Santos has flat-out denied certain claims.

He denied an accusation by veteran Richard Osthoff, who accused him of scamming him of $3,000 from a GoFundMe campaign page raised for his dying service dog in 2016.

Mr Osthoff told the news site Patch that he was told Anthony Devolder, one of the names Santos used before entering politics, had a pet charity called Friends of Pets United.

He claimed Mr Devolder closed the page and disappeared after the funds were raised.

Santos has angrily denied the reports and called them “shocking and insane”.

What makes his ‘lies’ different?

While some may say lying in politics is not new, one psychologist specialising in lying and deception research explains why Santos’s claims and accusations may seem a little different.

Dr Chris Hart, a psychology professor at Texas Woman’s University, told Sky News: “If we look at the lies most politicians tell they’re often exaggerations and half-truths.

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“They rarely lie in such a way that they are making a claim which has absolutely no basis in reality and that’s where he is different.

“The frequency with which he appears to tell them is a bit surprising compared to other politicians.”

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