Inside George Santos’s District Office: Nothing to See Here - The New York Times

It was hard to spot into the constrictive storefront bureau successful Queens, though the beforehand was made of glass. A detached bluish cubicle wall, leaning against the backs of 2 reddish chairs, hulked successful beforehand of the model and obstructed the view.

“It was wide before,” said J.W. Lee, the proprietor of the security institution adjacent door, arsenic helium smoked a Newport Light successful the threshold of his office. “They don’t privation radical looking inside.”

The storefront successful the Tudor Revival gathering successful the Douglaston vicinity of Queens has lived galore lives: It was a angiosperm shop; the outer bureau of Mr. Santos’s predecessor, Thomas R. Suozzi, whose sanction inactive adorns the greenish awning; and adjacent a massage parlor that neighbors disquieted sold much than conscionable ft rubs.

In the days since Mr. Santos opened his territory bureau there, the comparatively quiescent agelong of Northern Boulevard has drawn antithetic attention, from quality media and passers-by, possibly successful the vain hopes of catching a glimpse of the Republican congressman who falsely claimed to beryllium a champion volleyball player, a grandson of Holocaust survivors, a Goldman Sachs project manager and the kid of a Sept. 11 survivor.

At astir 8:45 a.m. connected Thursday, a middle-aged pistillate successful jeans with a brownish satchel slung crossed her backmost unlocked the bureau doorway and past locked it down her, curtly refusing introduction to the 2 reporters waiting outside.

“No,” she said.

A handwritten enactment connected the doorway reinforced the aura of opacity, and possibly immoderate measurement of caution.

“No videotaping allowed,” it work successful a neat bluish print. “No audio signaling allowed. No weapons allowed.”

A balding antheral clutching an umbrella stopped to work the sign, chuckled to himself and past moved along, but not earlier rapidly sizing up the situation. “It’s ridiculous,” helium said.

Another passer-by, Bill Graf, a 62-year-old creation teacher connected his mode to enactment astatine the adjacent National Art League, noted that the media involvement had been truthful aggravated that 3 of his students had already been interviewed. (This, Mr. Graf said, was his archetypal media interview.)

“Has helium ever really been here?” Mr. Graf wondered.

The reply was unclear. A spokeswoman for Mr. Santos did not respond to a petition for comment.

On that peculiar Thursday, Mr. Santos was successful Washington, according to Mark Woolley, the congressman’s territory director, who arrived successful Douglaston soon aft his terse pistillate colleague, and who gave The New York Times a circuit of the humble workspace.

Mr. Woolley, 66, gave disconnected the vibe of idiosyncratic with options successful life. A stocky antheral of mean build, helium wore a greenish sweater, a bluish shot hat, enactment boots and round, wire-rimmed glasses. He said helium spent 8 years arsenic territory manager for erstwhile Representative Lee Zeldin, who gave up his spot successful Congress to equine a astir palmy bid for politician of New York. He said helium had agreed to instrumentality the presumption aft revelations astir Mr. Santos emerged, and that helium was going into it with his “eyes wide open,” arsenic with immoderate different job.

“You look perplexed,” Mr. Woolley said to a Times reporter. “Why are you perplexed?”

“You person to abstracted authorities from authorities work, and you can,” helium said later. “Because this is authorities work. And it’s got to get done.”

With the bluish fractional of Long Island’s Nassau County falling into Mr. Santos’s district, County Executive Bruce Blakeman has said helium volition nonstop each national constituent calls to Anthony D’Esposito, different Long Island congressman.

“My bureau volition person nary enactment with George Santos oregon his unit until helium resigns,” Mr. Blakeman, a Republican, said this month.

But if constituents bash travel to Mr. Santos’s territory office, workers volition beryllium ready. On Thursday, determination were 4 unit members there, including Mr. Woolley. There was besides a transcript machine, a microwave, a java shaper and intermittent pounding from the level above, which was nether operation of immoderate sort.

At a table whose occupant had yet to arrive, yellowish sticky notes covered a monitor. One acrophobic a national subordinate seeking Mr. Santos’s attendance astatine an event. “It would mean a lot, I don’t attraction astir his lies,” the enactment quoted the national subordinate arsenic saying. “Everyone deserves a way to redemption.”

Another constituent had seemingly called successful hunt of a assemblage proposal connected behalf of his son. It was not wide however utile that proposal would be, fixed Mr. Santos’s estimation — 1 that Matthew Walters, a Republican and the proprietor of the adjacent Douglaston Delicatessen, likened to that of a “clown.”

David Chenkin, a 69-year-old retired paralegal wearing camouflage, was the lone neighbour to halt by the bureau that Thursday morning, but helium was incapable to get successful (the bureau unit had a wont of locking the doorway down them erstwhile they ventured outside). Mr. Chenkin voted for Mr. Santos and said helium conscionable wanted to speech with his staff.

“I would not person voted for him, had I known,” Mr. Chenkin said. “In my opinion, George Santos should enactment wherever helium is, helium should bash his occupation well, and possibly he’ll gain my spot again and I mightiness ballot for him again.”

The bureau abuts a chromatic partition supporting the berm of an aged religion cemetery. The Rev. Lindsay Lunnum, the rector of Zion Episcopal Church, is present Mr. Santos’s neighbor.

“The religion person successful maine would say, ‘You archer the information and the information volition acceptable you free,’” Ms. Lunnum said. “I anticipation arsenic a quality being that George Santos tin beryllium successful a spot wherever helium tin commencement to archer the information astir who helium is, some arsenic himself arsenic a human, but besides arsenic an elected official.”

“And past arsenic a national of this district,” she added, “I person zero assurance successful his quality to govern without that honesty.”

Nicholas Fandos contributed reporting.