Indicted Republican lawmaker George Santos expelled from U.S. House

On Friday, fellow members of the United States House of Representatives voted to eject indicted Republican George Santos from the chamber due to allegations of criminal misconduct and misappropriation of campaign funds. This led to the conclusion of Santos’ brief tenure in the House of Representatives.

In a vote that was more than the two-thirds majority necessary to remove one of its own, the House of Representatives voted 311-114 to immediately remove the contentious freshman representative.

An assistant stated that House Speaker Mike Johnson said he would vote against the expulsion just before the scheduled vote.

Since he was elected in November 2022, Santos, who is 35 years old, has been embroiled in scandal. In addition to the fact that he has acknowledged inventing a significant portion of his biography, federal prosecutors have accused him of corrupting contributors and laundering campaign cash. Santos has entered a plea of not guilty to the allegations against him.

In an earlier effort to expel him, which took place at the beginning of November, 182 of his fellow Republicans and 31 Democrats voted against his removal because his criminal case ought to be handled first. He was able to survive this attempt. His expulsion brings the Republicans’ already narrow majority down to 221-213, a more significant number than before. The perception is that his district, which encompasses significant portions of New York City and Long Island, is competitive.

He charged his congressional campaign account for spa services worth about $4,000, including Botox, according to a congressional investigation that both parties conducted last month. In addition, he spent more than four thousand dollars of campaign funds at the premium retail store Hermes. Additionally, he made “smaller purchases” from OnlyFans, an online site that is recognized for its sexual content.

This resulted in several Republicans who had supported him in the election held in November expressing their support for removing him from office. Santos has stated that it is pretty likely that he will be expelled.

Even though he had stated that he would not seek reelection the following year, he refused to quit.

When Santos was ejected from the House of Representatives, he was the first person to be expelled who had not been convicted of a crime or who had not fought for the Confederacy during the United States Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 1865. James Traficant, a Democrat, was the final member to be kicked out of the organization in 2002 following his conviction for involvement in criminal wrongdoing.

“I have been convicted of no crimes,” Santos stated on Thursday as he spoke on the House floor. The residents of the Third Congressional District of New York brought this place to my attention. Those individuals must be silenced, and the hard vote must be taken if they want me removed from my position.

Santos’ issues started right away after his victory in November 2022 when numerous media outlets revealed that, contrary to what he had claimed throughout the campaign, he had not attended New York University or worked at Goldman Sachs or Citigroup.

In addition to this, he made a bogus claim of Jewish background and informed voters that his ancestors had escaped Nazi persecution during World War II.

“Every day that Mr. Santos is allowed to remain a member of Congress, my New York neighbors to the west are being denied real representation in these halls,” Representative Nick LaLota, a Republican from a nearby district in New York, said on the floor of the House on Thursday. LaLota is a member of the majority party.

Even before federal prosecutors charged Santos with a variety of fraud and campaign finance violations, reports of the lies made him a pariah in the House of Representatives and the butt of late-night television comedians.

In an indictment that contains 23 counts, they accuse him of misrepresenting his fundraising totals to get more significant support from the Republican Party, laundering cash to pay for personal costs, and using donors’ credit cards without their consent.

In connection with the allegations of fraud, two former campaign aides have entered guilty pleas.

The trial of Santos is planned to begin on September 9, 2024, a short time before the elections in November that will determine who controls the White House and both chambers of Congress. Santos has denied any wrongdoing.

It is now up to the Democratic Governor of New York State, Kathy Hochul, to decide whether or not to institute a special election for the seat. The election must occur one hundred and seventy to eighty days after the proclamation.

Tom Suozzi, a Democrat who had previously attempted to run for governor but failed, represented the district before Santos’ victory in 2022. Nineteen candidates, including eight Republicans, have submitted their applications to compete for the seat that Santos now holds.