George Santos has complained that he has suffered a “year from hell” following the release of a scathing House Ethics Committee report which found that he spent campaign donations on OnlyFans and Botox.
The embattled congressman and serial liar took to X late on Thursday night to paint himself as a victim of “dirty” politics and “poison” from the ethics committee.
Lamenting that he was just trying to “serve my country” by running for Congress, the man who has been exposed for lying about everything from 9/11 to being Jewish claimed that his “rights” had been taken from him.
“My year from Hell,” he began.
“Running for office was never a dream or goal, but when the opportunity to do so came I felt the time to serve my country was now.
“Looking back today I know one thing, politics is indeed dirty, dirty from the very bottom up. Consultants, operatives, the opposition, the party and more… the one thing I never knew was that the process in Congress was dirty. I will continue to fight for what I believe in and I will never back down.
“What the ‘ethics committee’ did today was not part of due process, what they did was poison a (sic) the jury pool on my on going investigation with the DOJ. This was a dirty biased act and one that tramples all over my rights.”
George Santos has been investigated by the ethics committee for several months— (Getty Images)
The New York lawmaker concluded by announcing that he will hold a press conference on the steps of the US Capitol in two weeks’ time.
“Press conference November 30th at 8am on The Capitol steps, I encourage ALL members of the press to attend. Happy Thanksgiving,” he added.
On Thursday, the House Ethics Committee released its damning report into the freshman congressman following a months-long investigation.
In it, the committee said it had uncovered “substantial evidence” that the GOP lawmaker broke federal laws and that he “knowingly caused his campaign committee to file false or incomplete reports with the Federal Election Commission; used campaign funds for personal purposes; engaged in fraudulent conduct in connection with RedStone Strategies LLC; and engaged in knowing and willful violations of the Ethics in Government Act as it relates to his Financial Disclosure (FD) Statements filed with the House”.
“In light of the ongoing criminal investigation into Representative Santos, and the ISC’s findings of additional uncharged and unlawful conduct by Representative Santos, the ISC recommended that the Committee immediately refer these allegations to the Department of Justice,” the panel wrote.
The committee found evidence that the debt-ridden Mr Santos used the money donors had paid to his campaign to fund his “luxury spending habits” including Botox treatments, OnlyFans payments and shopping trips to Sephora.
Mr Santos allegedly transferred the campaign funds into his own account, then spent $4,127.80 at Hermes and several smaller purchases at OnlyFans.
Over $2,000 of campaign money was spent at casino resorts on the Atlantic City strip while more than $1,500 was spent on Botox, the report finds.
Mr Santos also splashed donor cash on a honeymoon to Las Vegas and a $3,000 stay at an Airbnb in the Hamptons.
“Representative Santos was frequently in debt, had an abysmal credit score, and relied on an ever-growing wallet of high-interest credit cards to fund his luxury spending habits. He occasionally deposited large amounts of cash that he has never accounted for, moved money between his various bank accounts in a highly suspicious manner, and made over $240,000 cash withdrawals for unknown purposes,” the report read.
In October, Mr Santos was indicted on 23 federal charges in New York including campaign fraud, credit card theft and lying to the Federal Election Commission. Since then, two of his former staffers have pleaded guilty in the case.
Following the report’s release on Thursday, Mr Santos announced that he will not seek reelection – but continues to refuse to stand down from his role in Congress.
Writing on X, Mr Santos said he wouldn’t be seeking “a second term in 2024 as my family deserves better than to be under the gun from the press all the time” as he lashed out at the ethics committee claiming it does not have “a single ounce of ETHICS”.
The findings laid out in the ethics report mark just the latest scandal to encircle Mr Santos, after he was exposed for lying about a whole host of things on his resume, claiming that his mother died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks and being accused of stealing funds raised for a disabled veteran’s dying service dog.
These growing scandals have led many within the GOP to deem him unfit for office.
Earlier this month, the embattled New York congressman survived an expulsion vote in the House of Representatives, brought to the floor by fellow Republican lawmaker Anthony D’Esposito. The resolution needed a two-thirds majority to succeed, but fell well short.
Now, pressure is mounting on the Republican party to vote to expel him in light of the report revelations.
Two lawmakers told Axios that Michael Guest, the chair of the Ethics Committee, is planning to file a resolution on Friday to expel Mr Santos from the House.
Others who voted to save Mr Santos in the last expulsion vote told the outlet that this time round they will support his removal.
“He’s gone,” one House Republican said.
