Rep. George Santos said Monday that he will stand for a likely third vote on his expulsion after a House ethics report revealed he may have committed federal crimes.
“Setting the record straight, My conversation with the speaker was positive and I told him id be standing for the expulsion vote,” Mr. Santos wrote on X. “Expel me and set the precent so we can see who the judges, jury and executioners in Congress are.”
“The American people deserve to know!” the New York Republican added.
The post came after House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, told reporters that he had spoken to Mr. Santos “at length” about his “options.”
“I know I’m going to get expelled when this expulsion resolution goes to the floor,” Mr. Santos said Friday night during a conversation on X Spaces. “I’ve done the math over and over, and it doesn’t look really good.”
Mr. Santos has already survived two expulsion votes, but some of his colleagues who originally opted to save his seat are now silent.
The House Ethics Committee’s monthslong investigation found that the New York lawmaker used campaign funds for personal reasons, such as purchasing luxury items and on adult websites, which caused the campaign to file false or incomplete reports.
“Representative Santos sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit,” investigators wrote. They also said he did not cooperate with the investigation and repeatedly evaded straightforward requests for information.
He already has been charged with 13 counts of misleading donors, receiving unemployment checks he did not deserve and lying to Congress. Another 10 counts allege he inflated his campaign finance reports and made unauthorized charges to donor credit cards. He has pleaded not guilty to all of them.
Earlier this year he admitted to making up parts of his background but has since argued that voters don’t care about those parts of his life.
“Nobody elected me because I played volleyball or not. Nobody elected me because I graduated college or not,” Mr. Santos told CNN’s Manu Raju this month. “People elected me because I said I’d come here to fight the swamp, I’d come here to lower inflation, create more jobs, make life more affordable and the commitment to America. That’s why people voted for anybody.”
He has resisted calls to resign. Shortly after the ethics report was released, he announced that he would not be seek reelection in 2024.
Source:Washington Times
