A top staffer for George Santos is reportedly facing disciplinary action from the embattled New York congressman after he lashed out at a female journalist on in a series of threatening tweets — and appeared to suggest she wanted to have sex with him.
Viswanag “Vish” Burra, a convicted drug dealer and Santos’ director of operations is currently in hot water after he relentlessly harassed freelance reporter Jacqueline Sweet in a bizarre tweet storm, The Daily Beast reported.
“This kind of behavior from anyone is unacceptable, much less from a congressional staffer,” Santos communications director Naysa Woomer told the outlet on Friday. “Threats of violence of any kind will not be condoned. The tweets have been deleted and disciplinary action will be taken.”
On Thursday — one day after Santos was federally indicted on 13 charges including fraud and money laundering — Burra unleashed on Sweet, who has been closely covering Santos’ fall from grace, and exposed a number of his innumerable lies.
Sweet first reported that the rookie Long Island rep was charged in 2017 with writing bad checks to an Amish dog breeder; that he was accused of fraud in the same year for running an ATM skimming operation; and that he has a history of stealing from his roommates, according to The Daily Beast.
“I knew you were looking into my eyes!” Burra posted Thursday night in a since-deleted tweet in response to Sweet’s post about him staring at her in the courtroom during Santos’ arraignment on Long Island.
“Jacqueline couldn’t keep her eyes off me!” he said.
Burra continued to barrage the reporter, claiming Sweet was “obsessed” with him and “fixated” on his “every move,” according to the outlet.
When an account named “George Santos Stan” tweeted at Burra and told him he “should have hit [Sweet] with that venom,” Burra responded by saying “I think she wants me to hit her with something else!”
“Hey now we can’t have both of you in court,” the “George Santos stan” account tweeted back.
Keeping track of Rep. George Santos' lies
Santos has admitted he lied on the campaign trail about his education and work experience.
- Claimed to have attended Horace Mann private school
A school spokesperson told CNN, “We’ve searched the records and there is no evidence that George Santos (or any alias) attended Horace Mann.”
- Claimed to have earned degrees from New York University and Baruch College
After the New York Times reported that neither school could find his name in their records, Santos came clean to The Post.
- Claimed to have worked for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs
Both financial firms told the New York Times they couldn’t confirm his employment claims.
- Claimed to own 13 rental properties
Santos confessed to The Post that he “does not own any properties” and acknowledged that he lived in his sister’s home on Long Island.
- Touted himself as a ‘proud American Jew’ whose grandparents escaped the Holocaust
“I never claimed to be Jewish,” Santos said. “I am Catholic. Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background, I said I was ‘Jew-ish.’”
- Claimed his mom was a groundbreaking executive who died as a result of the Sept. 11 terror attacks
Fatima A.C.H. Devolder died on Dec. 23, 2016, at Elmhurst Hospital Hospice.
Burra responded: “I think she wants me to lock her up somewhere else!”
In another tweet, the 32-year-old said that Sweet had only attended Wednesday’s hearing in Long Island to see him.
In yet another, he said that she was “not the first” liberal woman to fall in love with him.
“Don’t worry, I know I have an effect on your [sic] types,” Burra posted.
When Sweet posted a photo of a shoe that someone had left behind in the courtroom, Burra wrote that he thought Sweet left it behind intentionally, “hoping I would find who it belonged to and return it,” according to the Daily Beast.
Burra’s future as a staffer with the scandal-ridden congressman is unclear, although a source close to Santos’ office told The Daily Beast the incident is being taken “very seriously.”
In a tweet posted Friday afternoon, Burra whined “These people really expect to tweet shit about you all day and I can’t even joke and roast them back without them crying vIoLeNcE. I will never comply! Never!”
Santos tapped Burra, a MAGA world political operative tied to ex-White House strategist Steve Bannon, to join his staff in January as his house of cards built on a litany of lies began to fall on him.
“[Burra] has no problem working for controversial figures – and that’s kind of what makes him a prized staffer in that regard because he’s not going to run away scared. He doesn’t care about the supposed professional, reputational risks because this is what he does,” a source close to Santos’ office told The Post about the hire.
