Rep. George Santos, R-New York, is being expelled from Congress by a group of New York House Republicans.
Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-New York, wrote on the social media site X, “Today, I’ll be introducing an expulsion resolution to rid the People’s House of fraudster George Santos.”
According to him, Santos is “a stain” on the House and the state of New York, he told reporters. D’Esposito declared that it was time to forget about George Santos.
He stated that fellow New York House Republicans Nick LaLota, Mike Lawler, Marc Molinaro, Nick Langworthy, and Brandon Williams will co-sponsor the resolution.
LaLota declared Santos to be “immoral” and “untrustworthy” in character. “The sooner he’s gone, the better,” he stated.
A two-thirds majority vote of the full House would be necessary to remove Santos, a requirement LaLota seems confident in reaching. “I think this resolution will become popular. Many individuals share our sentiments,” he stated.
The action was taken a day after Santos was charged with identity theft, fraud, and other charges in a 23-count superseding indictment presented by federal prosecutors. Santos, who was initially charged in May, has declared he intends to contest the allegations. In the original 13-count indictment from earlier this year, he entered a not-guilty plea to all of the allegations.
Santos responded to the resolution as he hurried to his office from a Republican conference meeting. “If they want to be judge, jury, and arbitrator of every God damn thing let them do it,” he said. Later, he claimed, “They only want to silence the citizens of the third congressional district.”
In view of the criminal accusations and the discovery that Santos had faked a significant portion of his resume, Santos’s New York GOP colleagues had already called for him to resign.
After the latest allegations were made public on Tuesday, Molinaro said in a post on X, “I said he ought to step down and he should still resign.”
After Santos was first charged, House Democrats tried to have him expelled, but Republicans agreed to forward their motion to the House Ethics Committee, which has been looking into Santos since March.
He and his coworkers have waited long enough, according to D’Esposito. “I know that Ethics is a little busy, but, you know, it’s about time that we see some results,” he stated.
Santos first came under fire late last year, just before he was sworn in, when The New York Times published a bombshell investigation revealing that much of his resume appeared to have been fabricated, including claims that he owned numerous properties, had worked for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup in the past, and had a Baruch College degree.
It also raised concerns about how he was able to give his campaign $700,000 since he had previously run unsuccessfully for office in 2020, claiming on a campaign finance form that he earned $55,000 annually.
Santos admitted to “embellishing” some aspects of his past, but he asserted he hadn’t done anything wrong and had obtained his wealth legally.
The indictment, which was released in May, said that he had sought federal unemployment benefits while earning $120,000 per year, used campaign funds for personal expenses like luxury clothing, and lied about his income in House financial documents.
Breon Peace, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, announced on Tuesday that he had been hit with 10 additional charges against him, including charges that he had stolen people’s identities, used his own donors’ credit cards without their consent, and “falsely inflated the campaign’s reported receipts with non-existent loans as well as contributions that were either fabricated or stolen.”
One of the alleged scams was making it look like Santos was generating more money than he actually was in order to be eligible for support from the national party by making false claims that 10 relatives of Santos & his then-campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks, had made large donations to his campaign.
According to the prosecution, “Santos and Marks both understood that these individuals had neither provided the reported contributions nor given authorization for their private data to be included in such false public reports,”
Last Monday, Marks admitted confessed to related conspiracy charges. Santos, who pleaded not guilty to the original allegations and was released on a $500,000 bond, is due in court on October 27 to answer to the superseding indictment.
Santos has referred to the accusations against him as a “witch hunt” and has pledged not to step down.