FABRICATED BIOGRAPHY
Santos has been mired in controversy since his November 2022 election. He has admitted fabricating much of his biography, and federal prosecutors accuse him of laundering campaign funds and defrauding donors. Santos has pleaded not guilty to those charges.
He survived a previous expulsion attempt in early November, when 182 of his fellow Republicans and 31 Democrats voted against removing him on the grounds that his criminal case should be resolved first.
But a subsequent, scathing House Ethics Committee report on Santos’ behaviour eroded what support he had. Only 112 of 222 House Republicans voted to keep him in office this time around. Two Democrats voted against expulsion.
“George Santos’ lies were designed to defraud and deceive the voters in order for him to be elected, unlike other public corruption cases,” Representative Dan Goldman, a New York Democrat and former federal prosecutor, told reporters shortly before the vote.
A bipartisan congressional investigation last month found that Santos charged almost US$4,000 for spa treatments, including Botox, to his congressional campaign account. He also spent more than US$4,000 of campaign money at luxury retailer Hermes and made “smaller purchases” from OnlyFans, an online platform known for sexual content, according to the Ethics Committee.
Following the Ethics Committee report, he said he would not run for reelection next year.
The last expulsion was in 2002: Democrat James Traficant of Ohio in 2002, following his criminal corruption conviction.
Santos’ troubles began shortly after his November 2022 election, when media outlets reported he had not actually attended New York University or worked at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, as he had claimed during his campaign.
He also falsely claimed Jewish heritage and told voters his grandparents had fled the Nazis during World War II.
Reports of the falsehoods made Santos a pariah in the House and the butt of late-night TV comedians even before federal prosecutors charged him with an array of fraud and campaign-finance crimes.
In a 23-count indictment, they accuse him of inflating his fundraising totals in order to draw more support from the Republican Party, laundering funds to pay for personal expenses, and charging donors’ credits cards without permission.
Two former campaign aides have pleaded guilty to related fraud charges.
Santos denies wrongdoing, and his trial is scheduled to begin on Sep 9, 2024, shortly before the November elections that will determine control of the White House and both chambers of Congress.
Before Santos’ win in 2022, the district was represented by Democrat Tom Suozzi, who unsuccessfully ran for governor. Suozzi and 19 other candidates, including eight Republicans, have filed to run for Santos’ seat.
Source: CNA
