George Santos is now offering Cameo videos from his drag persona Kitara Ravache
Disgraced former congressman George Santos is now trying to cash in on his drag queen alter ego Kitara Ravache – just one year after he denied claims that he ever performed drag.
Mr Santos took to X on Monday morning to announce that Kitara is now available for bookings on the video platform Cameo.
“Y’all weren’t ready for this drop? I’ve decided to bring Kitara out of the closet after 18 years!” the former congressman and serial fabulist wrote along with a link to the site.
On Cameo’s website, the description for Kitara Ravache reads: “Hey you messy bitches! After 18 years in the closet I’m back for a limited time!”
The announcement marks a notable u-turn after Mr Santos previously denied ever performing in drag competitions in Brazil under the name “Kitara” in the 2000s.
The claim first emerged in January 2023 when Brazilian drag performer Eula Rochard, 58, told Reutersshe first encountered Mr Santos in drag at the first gay pride parade held in Niteroi, near Rio de Janeiro, in 2005.
She added that she remembered seeing him compete in a drag beauty pageant in 2008 in Niteroi.
Y'all weren't ready for this drop?
I've decided to bring Kitara out of the closet after 18 years!🤣🤣🤣
for a limited time & with 20% of the proceeds going to @Tunnel2Towers & @TheFellowship
Book your Kitara @BookCameo on the link below!💅 👇https://t.co/rRbyBLp8tm— George Santos (@MrSantosNY) April 29, 2024
“He’s changed a lot, but he was always a liar,” Ms Rochard told the outlet at the time. “He was always such a dreamer.”
Mr Santos dismissed the claim as “categorically false” and “outrageous”.
By December 2023, however, he was singing a slightly different tune, saying that he had dressed as Kitara “for a day when I was 18 years old“.
“If I was a career drag queen then, like everybody likes to claim, then I must be a myth of a drag queen now... I wear far more makeup today,” he said in an interview shortly after he was expelled from Congress in December.
Now, he seems to be fully embracing his drag persona — and willing to profit off of it.
This isn’t the first time he has turned to Cameo.
Following his expulsion from the House of Representatives in December, Mr Santos launched an account on the platform.
He quickly claimed that he “made more money in seven days than I would have made [in] an entire year in Congress”.
Mr Santos became the subject of mockery over the venture as Jimmy Kimmel sent in video requests asking him for videos about a dog named Adolf and a man eating six pounds of loose ground beef.
When the former congressman took the money and made the videos, Mr Kimmel shared them on his late-night show.
Now, Mr Santos is suing the show host over the matter.
This latest Cameo venture comes just days after the former Republican lawmaker decided to give up on his latest political aspirations, dropping his independent bid in a different New York district to the district he once served.
“I have decided to withdraw from my independent run for #NY1,” Mr Santos wrote in an announcement on X last week.
Still, he promised to “participate in the public policy discussion and will do my part… I will always strive to stand on the right side of history”.
Mr Santos had a brief stint in politics, with his string of lies and fabrications quickly coming to light after he entered Congress.
In May 2023, the embattled lawmaker was arrested and charged with 13 federal criminal counts, including wire fraud, money laundering, and theft of public funds.
By October, a superseding indictment revealed 10 new federal charges against Mr Santos, increasing the total to 23 counts. He was also charged with making materially false statements to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), falsifying records submitted to obstruct the FEC, aggravated identity theft, and access device fraud.
The latter two charges relate to allegations that Mr Santos stole donors’ credit cards. In the case of one donor, Mr Santos is accused of trying to charge at least $44,800 to his alleged victim’s credit card without authorisation. Mr Santos has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
One month after federal officials handed down the superseding indictment, the House Ethics Committee delivered a scathing report following its probe into the embattled congressman.
The committee said it had uncovered “substantial evidence” that Mr Santos broke federal laws, writing that Mr Santos “knowingly” caused his campaign to file false FEC reports and used campaign funds for personal purposes, including to pay for OnlyFans and Botox.
Although Mr Santos dismissed the report as a “disgusting politicized smear,” he also announced he would not be seeking re-election.
On the heels of the report the House voted to expel Mr Santos from Congress on 1 December – ousting him in a vote of 311 to 114.
He left the Capitol that day saying: “To hell with this place.”