Controversial House Rep. George Santos was reportedly dressed as a drag queen named “Kitara” while living in Brazil. A photo from 2008, where the congressman is seen in a drag costume has surfaced. 

The photo was revealed by reporter Marisa Kabas in an article from the Substack site ‘The Handbasket.’ Eula Rochard, a drag queen in Brazil and former friend of Santos, handed the photo to Kabas. 

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Rochard was already an established drag queen in Brazil when Santos met her. “I think I met him when he was around 16 or 17 years old,” she said of Santos. “He used to hang out in my house while his mom was playing Bingo.”

At the time, Santos used the pseudonyms Anthony Devolder and Anthony Zabrovsky. 

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Rochard said she saw Santos on Brazilian television recently and messaged her friends, telling them that she thought she knew him from his time in Brazil. However, her friends doubted her. That is when she found the old photo of Santos and posted it on Instagram.

“The picture was taken in 2008 at the Pride Parade at Icarai Beach in Niteroi,” she told Kabas. “George had disappeared for a little while, and then returned to Brazil with a lot of money, and that was about the same time when the picture was taken.”

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Santos was never a professional drag performer, Rochard said. “He did not have what it takes to be a professional,” she reportedly said. “George did not have the glamour for that.”

Santos has been making headlines after he was caught in a series of lies about his college education, employment history and Jewish heritage. Shortly before his first term in office was about to begin, the personal story he had campaigned upon was largely disproven.

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Currently, local, state, and federal officials are probing his questionable campaign financing. The lawmaker, who is the first openly gay non-incumbent Republican elected to the House has resisted calls to resign, even as prosecutors in Brazil have reopened a fraud case against him from 2008.

Rochard insisted that Santos “lied about everything” even back then. “He used to create stories, usually involving money – like that his dad was rich,” she recounted to Kabas. “But then people wondered why his mom was a cleaning lady. There’s nothing wrong with being a cleaning lady, but if his dad was rich, why then?”