Early on Friday local time, there was news in the US Congress that the chairman of the House Ethics Committee and Republican, Michael Geist, had submitted a resolution to expel Republican Representative George Santos from New York State. Earlier on Thursday, the committee released an investigation report described as a "strong attack on Santos".
(Source: Social media)
As a background, Santos, born in 1988, won the midterm elections at the end of last year and became a member of the New York State Third Country congressional district. This' political myth 'did not even last until January of this year when it was officially sworn in, resulting in a large number of scandals.
His resume was found to be fake - he claimed to have received a GPA of 3.89 at a university in New York, but he had never studied at that school; He claimed to have obtained an MBA degree, which is naturally false; What's even more ridiculous is that he claims to have worked at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs and helped major Wall Street banks achieve rapid performance growth, both of which clearly stated that "there was no such person found".
Subsequently, it was revealed that Santos falsely claimed to be unemployed to the federal government, thereby extorting $24000 in COVID-19 unemployment benefits. In addition, there were issues such as improper misappropriation of campaign funds to satisfy personal desires. In May this year, New York prosecutors announced 13 criminal charges against him, including telecommunications fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds, and making significant false statements to the House of Representatives. In October of this year, the US Department of Justice also accused Santos of 23 counts. Santos has pleaded not guilty to these charges.
In summary, since Santos officially became a US congressman, there have been calls from both parties in Congress for his resignation, and the investigation report and resolution released this week are all based on this.
It's not easy to dismiss' problem legislators'
On Thursday, the House Ethics Committee released an investigation report on Santos, pointing out that he "openly stole money from his campaign" and "attempted to fraudulently use various aspects of his House candidacy for personal economic gain.
(Source: House Ethics Committee)
The report reveals that Santos improperly misappropriated campaign funds for personal purposes, including purchasing luxury goods, killing Botox, taking vacations, and consuming on pornographic websites.
Faced with such a rare report, Santos also bombarded social media by stating that if the Ethics Committee had "an ounce of morality," it should not be made public. However, although Santos continues to emphasize that he will not resign, he has also stated for the first time that he will not seek re-election in the 2024 election, because he "does not want his family to live under the long-term influence of the media".
(Source: X)
According to the process, the US House of Representatives may handle this resolution after returning from Thanksgiving holiday. Santos also announced that a press conference will be held on the steps of the Capitol at 8am on November 30th.
According to institutions familiar with the history of the United States Congress, assuming the House of Representatives ultimately votes to expel Santos, he will become the sixth member of Congress to be expelled from the House of Representatives in American history, and also the first member of Congress to be expelled before being convicted by a court or accused of "disloyalty to the Union".
This imperative vote will also be the third time the US Congress has voted to expel Santos. At the beginning of this month, the House resolution to expel Santos failed with 179 votes in favor to 213 against, and Republican lawmakers who voted against believed that the principle of presumption of innocence should be followed. However, with the release of Thursday's report, several lawmakers who voted against it at the time have publicly expressed a change of mind. Previously, there was a procedural vote in the House of Representatives in May of this year, which entrusted the expulsion of Santos to the Ethics Committee for judgment.
