House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said he "always" questioned the resume of embattled Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., weeks after Santos' background fictions came to light.
"I always had a few questions about it," McCarthy told CNN on Capitol Hill on Monday.
McCarthy also said he was not initially briefed about an individual working for Santos who allegedly impersonated McCarthy's chief of staff when soliciting campaign contributions during his campaigns in 2020 and 2022.
"I didn't know about that. It happened, and I know they corrected it, but I was not notified about that until a later date," McCarthy said.
He added that he spoke with Santos about the incident.
Santos, a self-described financier and businessman, has admitted to lying about where he attended college and said he "misspoke" about working for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, according to ABC News. Both companies have said they do not have employment records for him.
Santos' claims of running an animal charity and having Jewish ancestry also have been questioned.
Citing an unnamed source, CNN reported that Dan Conston, president of the McCarthy-affiliated Congressional Leadership Fund PAC, voiced concern about Santos to lawmakers and donors.
McCarthy has not called for Santos to resign, but several New York House Republicans have.
"I try to stick by the Constitution," McCarthy said last week. "The voters elected him to serve. If there is a concern, and he has to go through the Ethics [Committee], let him move through that.
"He is going to have to build the trust here, and he's going to have the opportunity to try to do that."
Santos has not been accused of any crime and told the New York Post last month that he is "not a criminal."
"I was elected by 142,000 people," he said last week on Steve Bannon's "War Room" podcast. "Until those same 142,000 people tell me they don't want me, we'll find out in two years."