Rep. George Santos (R-NY) is no longer a member of Congress. The House voted 311-114 Friday morning to expel him in the first House expulsion since 2002.
The historic vote sets a new precedent in the House. Santos departs even as he has not been convicted of a crime and has pleaded not guilty.
Santos survived two earlier attempts to expel him, but could not hold on after a brutal report from the House Ethics Committee on its investigations into his actions.
The ethics committee report included evidence Santos knowingly filed false reports with the Federal Election Commission, used campaign funds for personal purposes including subscriptions to OnlyFans and botox treatments, and willfully violated ethics laws as it relates to his Financial Disclosure (FD) Statements filed with the House.
Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) speaks about the House Ethics Committee report and potential expulsion from Congress during a press conference outside on Capitol Hill on Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Santos remained defiant until the end, but insisted in recent days he was at peace with whatever his now-former colleagues decided. Thursday he introduced a privileged resolution to expel Rep. Jamaal Bowman, who pleaded guilty weeks ago to a misdemeanor for pulling a fire alarm in the Capitol complex.
“If the House wants to start different precedent and expel me, that is going to be the undoing of a lot of members of this body because this will haunt them in the future when mere allegations are sufficient to have members removed from office when duly elected by their people in their respective states and districts,” Santos said Thursday.
When the House last expelled a member, Rep. Jim Traficant (D-OH), in 2002, it did so only after Traficant was found guilty in court.
The ethics committee then did not even begin an investigation until Traficant’s court case had concluded.
Follow Bradley Jaye on Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
