George Santos
George SantosReuters

Scandal-plagued Rep. George Santos on Tuesday filed paperwork with federal regulators formally declaring his 2024 candidacy, CNN reported.

However, the formal declaration does not mean that Santos has to pursue reelection. The Long Island Republican’s action follows a demand last month from the Federal Election Commission that he declare his intentions after he crossed a fundraising threshold that required him to file a statement of candidacy.

A New York prosecutor launched an investigation against Santos in late December after he admitted to "embellishing" his resume.

Earlier this month, the US House Ethics Committee announced that it would investigate Santos over allegations that he lied extensively about his background and violated campaign finance laws.

Last week, when asked by CNN’s Melanie Zanona whether he’d run for office again, Santos answered, “Maybe,” and acknowledged that some of his fellow Republicans had urged him not to seek reelection. But he said he was focused on his current job in Congress.

Tuesday was the deadline for Santos to respond to federal regulators’ demand. The freshman has faced repeated questions about the accuracy of his campaign’s filings with the FEC and the identity of his treasurer.

Notably, his statement of candidacy said that he does not anticipate expending his personal funds on a reelection bid.

Some of the biggest questions around Santos’ campaign activity have centered on the financial windfall that allowed him to report a personal loan of $705,000 to his successful 2022 campaign. In Santos’ previous, failed bid for Congress, in 2020, his personal financial disclosure form listed no assets and a salary of $55,000.

He has said he earned the money through his firm, The Devolder Organization, but he listed no Devolder clients on the financial disclosure he was required to file last year as a candidate.

Santos has also come under fire for falsely claiming to have Jewish heritage. The Forward had questioned a claim on Santos’ campaign website that his grandparents “fled Jewish persecution in Ukraine, settled in Belgium, and again fled persecution during WWII.”

In another story, the site noted that he had called himself a "proud American Jew" in a position paper that was shared with Jewish and pro-Israel leaders during his campaign.

Santos later maintained that he still identifies as “Jew-ish” despite reports showing that his grandparents were Catholics born in Brazil.