I was winding down my work day here in Los Angeles when my phone rang at 5:37 p.m.from a blocked number.
It was former Congressman George Santos.He was boiling with rage.The day before, I published a story revealing that the Justice Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission had opened investigations into his trading activity on the prediction market site Kalshi.Officials at the company detected that he was betting against his appearance at Trump's State of the Union address in February, just as he posted a video on X gushing to his followers about how excited he was to attend.
With the help of three sources, I was able to confirm that Kalshi referred the matter to federal authorities in the Southern District of New York and Washington.Before the story, I emailed him, and he called me from a blocked number.So when my phone buzzed again from a blocked number, I had a pretty good sense of who it might be.Santos, whose political rise and fall was characterized by a notorious trail of lies and falsehoods, claimed my story was riddled with errors.
He said "my lawyers have been calling the Department of Justice all day, and they can't find any investigation."As we were talking, I asked if I could record the call.He said no.
I was in front of a keyboard, though, furiously jotting down every word.I asked him who his lawyers are, and he refused to answer.I questioned whether he really does have attorneys.
He replied: "I'm George f*cking Santos, of course I have a legal team."He then proceeded to name-call and attack the reputation of NPR, the kind of invective that's common when reporting on people who try to discredit reporters and news organizations for stories they don't like.What Santos said next took me aback, even by his outlandish and brazen standards."This story is going to get you a gun in your face," Santos said.I asked him what he meant by that."You know what I mean."It did not exactly feel like an imminent threat to my life that a convicted frau...