Republican lawmakers to introduce resolution to expel George Santos from Congress

Rep. George Santos is being expelled from Congress by a group of New York House Republicans.

“Today, I’ll be introducing an expulsion resolution to rid the People’s House of fraudster George Santos,” Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y., said in a post on the social media platform X.

He told reporters he considers Santos “a stain” on the House and on New York state. “It’s time that we move on from George Santos,” D’Esposito said.

He said the resolution will be co-sponsored by fellow New York House Republicans Nick LaLota, Mike Lawler, Marc Molinaro, Nick Langworthy and Brandon Williams.

LaLota said he considers Santos an “immoral” and “untrustworthy” person. “The sooner he’s gone, the better,” he said.

Booting Santos would require a two-thirds vote of the entire House, a benchmark LaLota seemed confident of meeting. “I predict this resolution is going to catch fire. Many people feel how we do,” he said.

The action was taken a day after Santos was charged with identity theft, fraud, and other offences 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.

“If they want to be judge, jury and arbitrator of the whole God damn thing let them do it,” Santos said, responding to the resolution as he ran to his office from a Republican conference meeting. “They just want to silence the people of the 3rd congressional district,” he said later.

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.

“I said he should resign and he should still resign,” Molinaro said in a post on X Tuesday after the additional charges were announced.

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 colleagues have waited long enough, according to D’Esposito. “I know that Ethics has been a little busy, but, you know, it’s 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 for 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 and 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 and his then-campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks, had made large donations to his campaign.

“Santos and Marks both knew that these individuals had neither made the reported contributions nor given authorization for their personal information to be included in such false public reports,” prosecutors said.

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.