George Santos’s weirdest lies revisited as he pleads guilty to fraud

George Santos’s plea deal invites a review of the former Republican representative’s most enduring, sometimes fabulous – but reliably pointless – false statements that destroyed the career of someone briefly seen as a potential young star of the Republican parties.

Here are some of the main ones.

1. The Brazilian drag performer The former New York congressman was identified as the Brazilian drag performer Kitara from a photo but said the claim was “categorically false”. Santos later said that he had at least dressed in drag. “I was young and I had fun at a festival. Sue me for having a life.”
2. Broadway musical producer Santos told potential donors that he had produced Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, the biggest Broadway flop of the modern era, infamous for losing $50m, delays and injured Spider-Man actors.
3. Sports star Santos boasted that he had been a star volleyball player at a New York college he never attended. And he did not attend New York University, where he said he’d received an MBA, or indeed the exclusive Horace Mann prep school in the Bronx until the 2008 financial crisis forced his family to pull him out.