Suffolk Reporter

(Editor's note: For this report, multiple sources have corroborated the allegations made herein by George Santos. This article is the third in a series of investigative reports on Suffolk County legal advertising and the politics involved. The first appeared in Legal Newsline).

Legal Newsline earlier this month kicked off an in-depth and on-going investigative reporting series on political corruption within the Suffolk County Republican Party concerning influence over a lucrative contract for newspaper legal advertisements.

In a hurried, last minute vote with no prior notice or public warning, GOP Legislators on July 30 awarded the contract worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to a fellow Republican official who owns a competing newspaper.

Karin Murphy of Campaign Strategy & Consulting | Facebook

Now a former Congressman has come forward stating Suffolk County Republican Chairman Jesus “Jesse” Garcia exerts influence over candidates to the point that officials like him were encouraged to place a “close female friend of the Chairman” on his payroll.

How does George Santos know this? His own campaign paid a consultant for what he characterized as a “no show job” in order to placate Garcia.

“If people dig, you’ll find this close female associate of Jesse Garcia might be found on multiple payrolls,” said former Congressman Santos (R-NY), who blasted Suffolk County GOP boss Garcia over his alleged involvement in getting the Legislature to abruptly redirect a valuable county contract to a politically favored recipient.

Garcia was asked to respond to specific allegations made by Santos. His response did not address the allegations laid out in this report, but he did attack Santos's character and this publication.

“Any so-called media outlet that hires George Santos, or is used to spread his continuous lies, in any capacity has no credibility whatsoever in the world of journalism,” Garcia stated. 

Santos said he encourages efforts to investigate any potential wrongdoing underlying last month's vote by the Suffolk County Legislature. 

In a series of interviews between Aug. 27 and 28, Santos unleashed on Garcia and what he called blatant corruption within the Suffolk County Republican Party.

He called Garcia a "corrupt chairman who uses his position to gain power and influence over people."

Garcia is employed as GOP Hispanic outreach coordinator for the Suffolk County Board of Elections, a position that in 2023 paid $163,000. He has served as Suffolk County Republican Chairman since April 2019.

Santos said that aspiring politicians or those seeking patronage government jobs are expected to "pay a toll" in some way, shape or form to Garcia.

"The issue with the South Shore Press is just one example of his influence," Santos said. "His role as chairman doesn't just end at the political level, it has extended to the official level. It’s one thing to force a political campaign to give a no-show job to a female confidant of a party boss. Investigators need to determine if this was extended to multiple public payrolls."

The Suffolk Reporter on Tuesday published a story on the growing controversy stemming from the Legislature's "emergency" vote to upend a legal advertising contract worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from the county's newspaper of record, the South Shore Press, to a competing newspaper, the Smithtown Messenger, whose owner Jim Cotgreave is a top contributor to local GOP candidates and causes. Cotgreave also serves as vice chair of the Smithtown Republican Party.

Garcia did not respond to a previous request for comment regarding the legal advertising contract.

Cotgreave told the Suffolk Reporter that he is not involved in newspaper operations and referred questions to the paper's publisher, Diane Caudullo.

"The Suffolk County Legislature recently made a vote to redirect the printing of the legals for the remainder of the year," Caudullo said in a statement to Suffolk Reporter. "It is entirely their prerogative to do so. I would suggest reaching out to them for comment as we had no part in that decision-making process."

Santos's stinging rebuke of Garcia comes in the wake of the feds' fraud investigation of Santos, resulting in his guilty plea on Aug. 17. 

Santos was elected to the state’s Third Congressional District in November 2022. He was expelled from Congress on Dec. 1, 2023.

He and his campaign committee treasurer, Nancy Marks, stood accused of inflating fundraising numbers in reports submitted to the Federal Election Commission.

The purpose of the scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, was to ensure that Santos and his campaign qualified for a program administered by the national party committee by having raised at least $250,000 from third party contributors in a single quarter. 

Marks pleaded guilty to related conduct in October 2023.

As an example of a favor required of him in order to earn Garcia's important endorsement for his 2022 congressional campaign, Santos said he was pressured to hire Garcia's close female friend, Karin Murphy of Campaign Strategy & Consulting, as a fundraising consultant for his finance committee.

Santos called it a "no-show" job that paid Murphy's firm $3,500 per month.

Santos said that Garcia told him, "why don't you hire her (Murphy)?"

“His intention was crystal clear,” Santos said. “This was no ‘wink and a nod.’ It was ‘she’s close to me. Hire her.’ I wonder how often this happened on public payrolls? Law enforcement most definitely takes theft of public services quite seriously.”

Federal Election Commission records show that Santos's finance committee paid Campaign Strategy & Consulting $22,200 between February and July 2021 for fundraising consulting and social media.

"She (Murphy) was never available," Santos said. "She was hands off for months. She was never available and was too busy with work for a state senator, which leads me to believe I wasn’t the only entity that Garcia hit up to put his close associate on a payroll."

Santos said Murphy would send an assistant to cover events or to handle conference calls.

Garcia fired back at Santos’s credibility in his statement to the Suffolk Reporter.

“George Santos is an admitted convicted felon who was expelled from Congress in absolute disgrace,” Garcia said in a statement provided to the Suffolk Reporter. “The best day I had during the 2022 campaign cycle was the day George Santos was redistricted out of Suffolk County.

“The irony of using a pathological liar, convicted felon, and one of the biggest con men in the history of government as a reliable source of information further proves there is no integrity or experience within your organization.”

Santos said that Garcia as Board of Elections official and as county GOP chair has lost his way.  

"The one true mission is to serve the public," Santos said. “He has forgotten that.”

Murphy has been contacted for comment for this story.