Rep. Michael Guest (R-MS), the chair of the House Ethics Committee, introduced a resolution today to expel George Santos (R-NY), just one day after the committee released its damning report on Santos’s alleged financial misdeeds.
The resolution cites a timeline of allegations against Santos, starting with how most of his background was shown to be made up shortly after he was elected in 2022. The resolution cites the House Ethics Committee’s findings that there is “substantial evidence that campaign funds were converted to personal use” and that Santos failed to correctly report his campaign’s finances to the Federal Election Commission, as well as the convictions of two of his campaign staffers on charges connected to fraud in their professional capacities. The resolution also cites the 23 federal criminal charges Santos is facing related to several alleged schemes to enrich himself at the expense of campaign donors and the government.
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The House Ethics Committee did not recommend any punishment for Santos, so Guest said in a statement that he was filing the resolution to expel Santos himself.
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“The evidence uncovered in the Ethics Committee’s Investigative Subcommittee investigation is more than sufficient to warrant punishment and the most appropriate punishment, is expulsion,” Guest said. “So, separate from the Committee process and my role as Chairman, I have filed an expulsion resolution.”
Guest said that he will call the measure to the House floor after Thanksgiving.
This would be the third time the House has tried to expel Santos. In July, three out LGBTQ+ Democrats introduced a resolution to expel Santos that House Republicans tabled. Earlier this month, several New York Republicans introduced another resolution to expel Santos that also failed to pass.
But the third time might be the charm. At least one Republican who voted against expulsion the last time, Rep. Jeff Jackson (R-NC), told The Hill that he would be voting to expel Santos now that the Ethics Committee’s report has been released.
“Rep. Santos has received his due process. This report is fully damning,” he said. “I will vote to expel him.”
On X, Santos said last night that this has been his “year from Hell.” He complained that “politics is indeed dirty, dirty from the very bottom up” and expressed anger at the Ethics Committee for releasing its report before his trial in a court of law for fraud, saying that “what they did was poison a the [sic] jury pool on my on going investigation with the DOJ.”
“This was a dirty biased act and one that tramples all over my rights,” he complained before announcing a press conference on November 30, which may come after the vote on Guest’s resolution.
Santos said yesterday that he will not seek reelection in 2024.
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