On Friday morning, Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., was the target of a resolution filed by House Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss.
The resolution was passed one day after the committee’s damning report was made public, concluding that Santos had “violated federal criminal laws” by filing false campaign reports and using campaign funds for personal use.
“Expulsion is the most appropriate punishment, as demonstrated by the evidence uncovered in the Ethics Committee’s Investigative Subcommittee investigation,” Guest stated in a statement on Friday. “I have thus filed an expulsion resolution, independent of the Committee procedure and my function as Chairman.”
The resolution stated that due to “his egregious violations,” Santos is “not fit to serve as a Member of the United States House of Representatives”.
The week following Thanksgiving is the earliest possible time for a vote on the expulsion. Nov. 28 marks the House’s return.
Regarding the expulsion resolution, a request for comment was not immediately answered by Santos’ office.
Santos declared on Thursday that he would not run for office again the following year following the publication of the Ethics report.
According to the report, the Ethics panel discovered several questionable campaign expenditures that it stated did not seem to have a “campaign nexus.” The committee’s report included information on Santos’s purchases at Ferragamo and Hermès stores, as well as his use of an Airbnb during a weekend getaway in the Hamptons, Botox treatments, and OnlyFans, a subscription website that frequently hosts pornography.
Santos withstood an attempt to remove him from Congress earlier this month: 179 members voted in favor of the removal, 213 opposed it, and 19 members were present. To remove a member from the House, two thirds of the lawmakers must vote in favor.
Politicians had expressed their desire to hold off until the Ethics Committee’s report on its Santos investigation was published.