Former representative George Santos announced Monday that he will revive his drag queen persona in custom videos available for purchase on Cameo.
Santos, the first-term Republican who was expelled from Congress in December, said on X that he would create the Cameo account for his drag alter ego, Kitara Rivache, for a limited time.
“You guys weren’t ready for this drop yet?” Santos, 35, said. “I have decided to bring Kitara out after 18 years!”
The personalized videos he creates on Cameo — a digital platform that allows fans to pay celebrities to record short, custom videos — will cost $350 each, according to the new account’s page. Santos started using Cameo just days after being expelled from Congress; in December, he told Semafor that the money he made in just 48 hours on the platform exceeded the $170,000 he would have made for an entire year in Congress.
The disgraced former New York congressman said 20% of the proceeds from his Kitara videos will go to two nonprofits: International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, which aims to build support for Israel through connections between Jews and to promote Christians; and the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which supports first responders, military personnel and veterans and, according to its website, “helps America never forget September 11, 2001.”
Both nonprofits told NBC News in emails that they have had no contact with Santos or his team and that they only learned about possible donations when Santos tweeted it on Monday.
In 2022, Santos was accused of falsely claiming that he is Jewish and that his mother was at the World Trade Center on September 11. Santos told the New York Post in an interview later that year that he never claimed to be Jewish, but instead said he was “Jewish.” And records obtained by NBC News in January 2023 revealed that Santos’ mother was living in Brazil during the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Santos was also accused of refusing to hand over thousands of dollars he allegedly raised for a disabled veteran whose dog needed life-saving surgery in 2016. Santos denied the allegations in an interview with Semafor in 2023.
In January 2023, a Brazilian drag queen, Eula Rochard, shared a photo on social media of herself and a drag performer, whom she gave the stage name Kitara Rivache, saying that the performer was in fact Santos. NBC News has not independently verified the photo, which Rochard told NBC News at the time originally appeared in a Brazilian newspaper in 2008.
At the time, Santos, who has lived part of his life in Brazil, denied performing in drag and called out allegations that he was a former drag queen “categorically false.” In the days that followed, he seemed to suggest that he had performed in drag in the past, telling reporters, “I was young and having fun at a festival.” Sue me because I have a life.”
The drag photos allegedly depicting Santos surfaced shortly after a New York Times investigation questioned whether Santos had fabricated key aspects of his education, work history, finances and personal life, including that he had worked at Goldman Sachs and that four of his employees had died. in the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida.
Shortly before he was expelled from Congress, Santos was hit with 23 federal charges in October. Santos has pleaded not guilty to all charges, including money laundering, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and theft of public funds.
An attorney for Santos, Andrew Mancilla, said in an email Monday that his client is not guilty, “and his defense team will file motions to dismiss these charges later this week.”
Mancilla did not respond to a request for comment about Santos’ revived drag persona.
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This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
