Police refute Rep. George Santos’ claim his niece was kidnapped by Chinese communists

Key details: Santos made the claim during an interview with New York Times reporter Grace Ashford in early September, describing the alleged kidnapping as the “one story that nobody talks about.”

Ashford and co-author Michael Gold also released an exposé about Santos in December 2022 that detailed his alleged lies, including his purported Wall Street background and his attendance of Baruch College in New York City.

What happened: According to Santos, his 5-year-old niece disappeared while she was in a playground in Queens, New York. She was only located about 40 minutes later through a surveillance camera. Santos claimed that the surveillance footage showed the presence of two Chinese men.

It was not revealed when the alleged kidnapping incident occurred.

The one responsible: Santos “heavily implied” that the alleged kidnapping may have been “retaliation” on China’s part as the Republican politician is a vocal critic of the CCP, according to the report.

When Ashford asked if he thought it was China, Santos noted he did not want to go into the “conspiracy theory” space, “But you know, if the shoe fits, right?”

What authorities said: Ashford reportedly looked into the matter by contacting an unnamed “high-ranking police official,” who confirmed that officers were called about the incident and the police purportedly looked into the case.

During the investigation, the high-ranking police official reportedly noted that they found no evidence of kidnapping or even suggesting that the CCP was involved.

“We found nothing at all to suggest it’s true. I’d lean into, ‘he made it up,’” the official told the New York Times.

Facing charges: The embattled New York representative was arrested on May 10 on 13 charges, including wire fraud, money laundering and making false statements to the House of Representatives.

In a post on X the same day, Santos claimed that his arrest was linked to his vocal support for self-exiled Chinese billionaire Miles Guo, who was arrested and charged with wire fraud and money laundering in March. Prosecutors in April demanded that Guo not be granted bail following his arrest.

Santos was indicted on 10 new additional federal charges in a superseding indictment on Oct. 10. Some of the new charges filed against him include conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, making materially false statements to the Federal Election Commission and aggravated identity theft, to name a few. He is due to return to federal court on Friday.