New York Times politics reporter Maggie Haberman was slammed for crediting the Gray Lady for getting George Santos indicted rather than the small Long Island publication that revealed the extent of the disgraced congressman’s fictitious finances.
Haberman wrote to her 1.6 million Twitter followers on Wednesday that the Times “started the long saga of George Santos” in December when it published a story on aspects of Santos’ fabricated biography.
But Grant Lally, the publisher of the North Shore Leader, quickly called out Haberman.
“Perhaps Maggie forgot that the story was broken by a small local newspaper at the beginning of October 2022 when we wrote several articles detailing and exposing the lies in George Santos’ campaign filings and called him a fraudster and a fabulist,” Lally told The Post.
Santos, who concocted an image of a wealthy businessman of Jewish lineage whose mother died on 9/11, surrendered on Wednesday to federal authorities on Long Island.
The first-year congressman is alleged to have duped donors, stolen from his political campaign, lied to Congress about being a millionaire, and illegally claimed unemployment benefits.
Santos, 34, has pleaded not guilty. He was released on a $500,000 bond.
Haberman, a former Post staffer who has won awards and gained national attention for her coverage of former President Donald Trump, had linked to a December article written by her Times colleagues Grace Ashford and Michael Gold.
The Times story triggered a complaint that was filed with the Federal Election Commission accusing Santos of illegally using campaign funds to pay personal expenses and masking the true source of the funds.
But Twitter users pointed out that The Leader, a weekly 20,000 circulation newspaper based in the Long Island hamlet of Locust Valley, was the first to reveal in September that Santos went from being broke to boasting a net worth of $11 million in the span of two years.
The Leader also raised several red flags about the GOP lawmaker who would go on to flip New York’s third congressional district from blue to red last November, including dubious claims about property ownership and income.
In October, the weekly reluctantly endorsed Santos’ opponent, Democrat Robert Zimmerman.
“This newspaper would like to endorse a Republican,” Lally wrote in an editorial.
But the editorial board of The Leader concluded that Santos “is so bizarre, unprincipled and sketchy that we cannot.”
“He boasts like an insecure child — but he’s most likely just a fabulist — a fake,” the newspaper said.
Haberman’s tweet elicited a sharp response from several Twitter users who pointed out that The Leader deserves credit for being the first to raise questions about Santos.
Soledad O’Brien, the former CNN anchor, responded to Haberman by tweeting: “This is false.”
Another Twitter user wrote: “Give credit where due instead of taking it when undeserved.”
“Not even a tip of the cap to the North Shore Leader?” another Twitter user commented before adding: “I do understand it was the NY Times reporting that jumpstarted all of the investigations, but the Leader was on the story first.”
The Post has sought comment from Haberman, the Times, and Santos.
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