The Wiki biography was last edited on April 29, 2011. It contains basic information matching the newly sworn-in congressman, including Devolder’s birth on July 22, 1988, to a Brazilian family with a European background.
Santos has used the name Anthony Devolder elsewhere for online accounts.
His office referred calls for comment to an outside aide, who did not immediately respond. But if the person who created the Anthony Devolder Wiki biography wasn’t Santos, it would mean someone used the same aliases and the same biographical details as he did a dozen years ago, all for a user page that no one else would see.
The appearance of the Wiki biography is another twist in a week-long saga of lies and embellishments. The New York Republican has been caught fabricating his own resume on everything from his business career, educational achievements and the nature of his mother’s death. He has admitted that he misled critical parts of his biography, but has also insisted that other politicians have done the same.
The Wiki biography of Anthony Devolder, which is full of spelling and grammatical errors, seems to contain fantastic descriptions of his purported career in show business. He claims that he had a role in Disney’s «Hannah Montana,» among other examples.
It was apparently just the first of several attempts by Santos to edit his biography in the Internet encyclopedia, steps that further show the extent to which he has gone to curate his life story.
In November, a Wiki user named devmaster88 edited the Wikipedia page for then-Congressman-elect George Santos (a separate page from the Wiki biography for Anthony Devolder). The user changed the section on Santos’ personal life and made changes to his middle name. Around that time another account, georgedevolder22he also made edits to Santos’s public Wikipedia page, removing all of the middle name, Anthony Devolder, so that the biography was shortened to George Santos.
Wikipedia does not reveal the identity of users. But both accounts were later blocked from the site. The moderators, as part of the ban, wrote that devmaster88 was «abuse multiple accounts” and which was probably an extension of georgedevolder22.
Santos, a Republican, has rejected relatively few accusations that he lied about his past. But he did deny the drag performances that were first revealed by MSNBC reporter Marisa Kabaswho posted a photo it alleges to be of Santos dressed as a drag in 2008. Kabas also spoke with a Brazilian drag queen who was allegedly friends with Santos when she lived near Rio de Janeiro and used the stage name Kitara.
On Thursday, the New York Post translated a video from the Portuguese in which a person who appears to be Santos talks about performing in drag. the video was after published online by the Daily Mail.
Santos has rejected repeated calls by his fellow Republicans to resign his seat over the lies, even as he has come under investigation over his finances. In the last days he denied separate charges from New Jersey veterans who claim he walked off with thousands of dollars earmarked for life-saving surgery on one of his sick dogs.
In the 2011 Wiki biography, user Anthony Devolder sprinkles equally bogus-sounding showbiz credits. He describes his Hollywood career as taking off after a meeting with a producer of the 1996 blockbuster «Independence Day.» He mentions director Steven Spielberg (he misspelled his last name as «Spilberg»), and claims to have starred in «some TV shows and DISNEY Channel shows like ‘The Suite Life of Zack and Cody’ and the hit ‘Hanna[h] Mountain.»
The Wiki biography concludes with Santos writing that, two years earlier, he «shot his first film beginning [sp] Uma Turman, [sp] chris odanald, [sp] Melissa George, [sp] and alicia silver stone [sp] in the movie «THE INVASION».
“The Invasion” is a 2007 science fiction thriller with roots in the “Body Snatchers” story and stars Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig.