Embattled GOP Rep. George Santos has so far remained defiant in the face of a renewed effort to expel him from Congress after a damning House Ethics Committee investigation into the New York congressman.
Santos has said repeatedly that he will not resign and will face an upcoming expulsion vote, which is on track to take place Friday. The congressman has announced plans for what he has billed as a news conference Thursday morning as the vote looms.
Santos has survived previous attempts to remove him from the House, but momentum is building for the latest effort after the release of a scathing report from the House Ethics Committee earlier this month, which concluded that he “sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit.”
Santos announced that he would not seek reelection following the release of the ethics report, but he denounced the congressional investigation as “a disgusting politicized smear.”
In remarks on the House floor Tuesday evening, Santos argued that the expected vote to expel “sets a very dangerous precedent for the future.”
“Are we to now assume that one is now no longer innocent until proven guilty and that they are in fact guilty until proven innocent?” he asked.
Expulsion is the most severe form of punishment for a lawmaker in the House and only five members have ever been expelled from the chamber. It requires a two-thirds majority vote to succeed – a high bar to clear.
Apart from the Ethics Committee investigation, Santos has also pleaded not guilty to 23 federal charges, including allegations of fraud related to Covid-19 unemployment benefits, misusing campaign funds and lying about his personal finances on House disclosure reports.
As Republicans weigh how to vote, many have expressed due process concerns over expulsion since…
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