BETHLEHEM, Pa. — The U.S. House expelled embattled Rep. George Santos Friday morning, hours after U.S. Rep. Susan Wild urged her colleagues to remove him for wide-ranging misconduct.
A bipartisan House voted 311 to 114 to remove the freshman Republican from office. He spent less than a year representing portions of Long Island and had already survived two efforts to oust him from Congress.
But the third motion to strip him of his power proved to be the charm. Earlier this month, the House Ethics Committee released a damning report that found mountains of evidence showing he had broken campaign finance laws and lied to his constituents and the federal government.
Santos faces 23 federal charges ranging from wire fraud to identity theft to money laundering. While he has pledged not to seek re-election, he has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He remained defiant to the end, accusing his colleagues of engaging in a smear campaign to remove him from office.
In American history, only five other House members have been expelled, Santos said Thursday. But all those other cases involved either convicted criminals or Confederates from the Civil War, he said. Why, he asked, was the House in a rush to break hundreds of years of precedent to remove him from office?
"I have been convicted of no crime, Mr. Speaker. My loyalty to this country that gave me life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is true and unquestionable," Santos said.
Wild, as the ranking Democrat of the Ethics Committee and the ranking Democrat of the subcommittee that investigated him, was one of several speakers Thursday who urged lawmakers to remove Santos from office. The Ethics Committee gathered a staggering amount of evidence showing Santos' wrongdoings, she said. She reminded her fellow members the report passed with unanimous support from the committee — the only one in the House with equal members of Democrats and Republicans.
"Mr. Santos has repeatedly, egregiously and brazenly violated the public's trust. Mr. Santos is not a victim. He is a perpetrator of a massive fraud of his constituents and the American people."U.S. Rep Susan Wild, D-Lehigh Valley
"Mr. Santos has repeatedly, egregiously and brazenly violated the public's trust," Wild said. "Mr. Santos is not a victim. He is a perpetrator of a massive fraud of his constituents and the American people."
Non-partisan attorneys and congressional staffers reviewed more than 172,000 documents while investigating Santos over nine months, according to the report. Their findings alleged:
- Santos filed false campaign finance reports claiming he loaned his campaign nearly $800,000 during congressional campaigns in 2020 and 2022. Investigators determined $792,750 of these loans never existed. Instead, Santos used the false records to misrepresent his campaign's financial strength to secure funding from the Republican Party and donors. Santos was "reimbursed" more than $31,000 in 2020 when in reality he only donated $3,500.
- Santos improperly used campaign funds for what appear to be personal expenses, including $1,000 to pay his rent; more than $2,200 over two days at Atlantic City resorts; and $1,400 for Botox treatment at a Long Island spa.
- Santos formed a company that his campaign and donors paid for digital consulting and fundraising. At least $50,000 intended for campaign services was instead transferred to Santos' personal bank accounts. The money was used to pay off personal credit card bills and make purchases from Only Fans, Sephora and Hermes.
Santos has already survived two past efforts to expel him from Congress instigated by fellow New York Republicans, but the writing was on the wall for the third. The last vote came before the Ethics Committee released its findings, and several members voiced their unwillingness to proceed without its findings.
This third motion was filed by Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., the chair of the Ethics Committee, and dozens of members who opposed expulsion before have publicly reversed course — including Wild. She voted present before so as not to create a conflict of interest with her duties on the Ethics Commission.
