New York Republican politician George Santos is facing a new move to expel him from the US Congress in the aftermath of a damning report by the ethics committee in the House of Representatives.
The Republican chairman of the House of Representatives ethics committee Michael Guest on Friday filed a motion aimed at removing Mr Santos from Congress.
The House can consider the motion after it returns from its Thanksgiving holiday recess on November 28th.
It would require a two-thirds majority in a vote in the House of Representatives for Mr Santos to be expelled.
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The evidence uncovered by the investigative subcommittee of the ethics committee was “more than sufficient to warrant punishment”, Mr Guest said on Friday. “And the most appropriate punishment is expulsion.”
Mr Santos had faced two previous unsuccessful moves to eject him from Congress after extensive reports that he had fabricated key parts of his curriculum vitae and life story and following a decision by federal prosecutors to charge him on 23 felony counts.
Some politicians were wary about expelling an elected colleague when due process had not been completed and an ethics committee investigation was still under way.
However, in the aftermath of the findings of the committee, it may be more difficult for Mr Santos to secure sufficient support to hold on against the latest attempt to remove him.
Mr Santos said following the release of the ethics committee report on Thursday that he would not seek re-election next year.
The ethics committee report said its investigative subcommittee had found that “Representative Santos sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit”.
Investigators alleged that Mr Santos had stolen money from his campaign, deceived donors and reported fictitious loans.
They claimed the congressman spent large sums provided by donors to his campaign on purchases at high-end shops, visits to spas and casinos as well as on Botox and on payments to a subscription site that contains adult content.
In a post on social media on Thursday night, Mr Santos spoke about his “year from hell”, criticised the ethics committee and promised to hold a press conference on the steps of the US Capitol on November 30th.
“What the ‘ethics committee’ did today was not part of due process. What they did was poison a the jury pool on my ongoing investigation with the DOJ [Department of Justice]. This was a dirty biased act and one that tramples all over my rights.”
It is possible that by the time the planned press conference takes place, the House of Representatives may already have voted on the new motion to expel Mr Santos.
Only five people have been expelled from the House of Representatives – three during the US civil war for disloyalty to the union and on two occasions after members were convicted on federal charges.
If Mr Santos were expelled, there would have to be a special election in his constituency in New York to find a replacement.
If Democrats won such an election, it would narrow further the Republican’s small majority in the House of Representatives.
