George Santos' time as a U.S. Representative is over.
On Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to expel the New York Republican after a House Ethics Committee released a report detailing that Santos violated campaign finance laws during his election campaign.
The House of Representatives voted 311 to 114 in favor of expelling Santos from office.
"In light of the expulsion of the gentleman from New York, Mr. Santos, the whole number of the house is now 434," said House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Santos was elected to the House in November 2022 after defeating Democrat Robert Zimmerman, but is now facing 23 federal indictments for a slew of charges ranging from conspiracy, wire fraud and defrauding campaign donors.
According to the Department of Justice, the charges stem from fraud committed during the 2022 election cycle. Santos is accused of misleading the Federal Election Commission and the National Republican Party committee by producing falsified financial documents with inflated campaign fundraising numbers.
Another indictment alleges that Santos stole money from his contributors' credit cards. According to the DoJ, he attempted to charge a contributor's credit card for $44,800. In another instance, he transferred $12,000 from a different contributor's credit card to his personal bank account. The stolen money was labeled as donations from his family.
Even before the charges came to light, Santos was under immense pressure from his Capitol Hill colleagues for allegedly lying about his work experience and about his connection to the Holocaust, as well as cheating a homeless veteran out of thousands of dollars that were donated to cover medical expenses for his service dog. He was also accused of sexual misconduct by a former aide.
In the days following the Ethics Committee report, Santos took to X, formerly known as Twitter, stating his intentions not to seek reelection in the 2024 elections.
"If there was a single ounce of ETHICS in the "Ethics committee", they would have not released this biased report. The Committee went to extraordinary lengths to smear myself and my legal team about me not being forthcoming (My legal bills suggest otherwise), said Santos.
"I will not stand by as I am stoned by those who have flaws themselves. "I will continue on my mission to serve my constituents up until I am allowed. I will however NOT be seeking re-election for a second term in 2024 as my family deserves better than to be under the gun from the press all the time," he added. However, on Friday he had anticipated he expected to be expelled after the Ethics Committee report and announcements about a new motion to expel him.
If there was a single ounce of ETHICS in the “Ethics committee”, they would have not released this biased report. The Committee went to extraordinary lengths to smear myself and my legal team about me not being forthcoming (My legal bills suggest otherwise).
— George Santos (@MrSantosNY) November 16, 2023
It is a disgusting…
Santos is the sixth House member to be expelled from the House of Representatives. Rep. James Traficant was the previous representative removed from office in 2002 over corruption charges.
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