Following the release of a scathing House Ethics Committee report accusing Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) of campaign finance violations, the freshman congressman said Friday that he expects to be expelled from the House.
“I know I’m going to get expelled when this expulsion resolution goes to the floor,” Santos said on X Spaces, formerly Twitter Spaces.
Santos has survived two expulsion attempts, but some members say they will vote differently next time.
The Congressman said he felt like the “it girl” when he was first elected in 2022 and that everybody wanted him, “until nobody wanted me.”
The House Ethics Committee began its investigation in March 2023, after allegations of campaign finance misconduct and that Santos lied about biographical details surfaced. Santos was indicted on 13 federal charges in May 2023, and in October, a superseding indictment brought another 10 criminal counts against Santos, bringing the total to 23.
Santos was charged on seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds and two counts of making materially false statements to the House. The other indictment charged him with one count of conspiracy to commit offenses against the U.S., two counts of wire fraud, two counts of making materially false statements to the Federal Election Commission, two counts of falsifying records submitted to obstruct the FEC, two counts of aggravated identity theft and one count of access device fraud.
Santos pleaded not guilty to all charges and has said that he will not be seeking reelection. He said he will continue to serve his district until he is allowed, indicated that he has no plans to voluntarily leave Congress.
“I’m not running for reelection, not because this was a damning report,” Santos said. “I’m not running for reelection because I don’t want to work with a bunch of hypocrites.”
Santos accused other members of Congress of being “more worried about getting drunk every night with the next lobbyist that they’re going to screw and pretend like none of us know what’s going on.”
He called for an ethics investigation into the other members’ behavior and said his actions came “before I was even a member of Congress.”
House Ethics Committee Chair Michael Guest (R-Miss.) introduced a resolution to expel Santos last week, less than 24 hours after the panel published its report. Guess could call the expulsion measure to the floor when the House reconvenes after Thanksgiving.
“If you want to expel me, I’ll wear it like a badge of honor,” Santos said. “I’ll be the sixth expelled member of Congress.”
“I’m not leaving,” Santos emphasized. “These people need to understand, it’s done when I say it’s done.”