Rep. George Santos is considering another attempt to remove him from Congress — and it will likely be successful, he admits.
The Long Island liar survived a vote to expel him earlier this month as 31 Democrats and most Republicans voted to keep him. Many of them said they would prefer to wait for an Ethics Commission report detailing his misdeeds.
That report has now been made public, showing that Santos used campaign money and donations to finance a lavish lifestyle, engaged in fraud, filed false election reports and “intentionally” violated ethics.
Santos, R.N.Y.
“I know I will be expelled if this expulsion resolution comes up,” Santos said during a conversation on X Spaces on Friday. “I’ve been calculating it over and over again and it doesn’t really look right.”
Meanwhile, the progressive group MoveOn placed a huge Santos balloon outside the Capitol on Tuesday, where a resolution to expel him will be privileged this afternoon – meaning a vote in two days.
Rep. George Santos is considering another effort to remove him from Congress — and it will likely be successful, he admits
Progressive group MoveOn placed a huge Santos balloon outside the Capitol on Tuesday
He said he told Chairman Johnson he would stand for the expulsion vote and not resign. “Put me away and set a precedent so we can see who the judge, jury and executioners are in Congress,” the New York Republican wrote on X.
He also faces criminal charges for campaign finance violations and fraud.
Santos would be only the third member in the last century to be expelled from Congress. Here’s a look back at those who came before him:
Rep. James Traficant, D-Ohio (2002)
Traficant, a flamboyant economic populist who had held his seat since 1985, was ousted after being convicted on federal corruption charges for taking campaign funds for personal use.
The vote was almost unanimous: 420 members voted ‘yes’ to expulsion, one voted no, nine voted ‘present’ and four did not vote.
Traficant emerged from prison again as an independent candidate and won 15 percent of the vote.
He had been convicted of ten crimes, including bribery, extortion and tax evasion.
Before joining Congress as sheriff of Mahoning County in 1983, Traficant was charged with racketeering for allegedly taking bribes. He defended himself in court, claiming he only accepted bribes as part of his undercover investigation into government corruption – and he was acquitted.
Traficant, a flamboyant economic populist who had held his seat since 1985, was ousted after being convicted on federal corruption charges for taking campaign funds for personal use
Rep. Michael “Ozzie” Myers, D-Pa. (1980)
Myers was deported after the FBI exposed his involvement in the Abscam scandal — a sting operation that led to convictions of seven members of Congress and others for corruption and bribery.
In the Abscam operation, FBI agents pretended to represent an Arab company offering bribes for political favors while secretly recording.
Myers was caught on tape accepting an envelope containing $50,000, which he was told was in exchange for getting a fake Arab sheikh asylum in the US. “Money talks in this business and bulls*** walks,” he said on the recording.
Representative Michael Myers
The mayor of Camden, NJ, a senator and six members of the House of Representatives were also caught red-handed during the operation. Everyone resigned except Myers. He was expelled by a vote of 376 to 30.
The Pennsylvania Democrat was convicted of bribery and sentenced to three years in prison.
He was charged with bribery again in 2020 at the age of 77 – accused of stuffing ballot boxes, bribing elected officials, falsifying records, voting more than once in federal elections and obstructing justice.
He was convicted in 2022 and currently remains in federal prison, serving a two-and-a-half year sentence.
Civil War expulsion (1861–1862)
When the Confederacy seceded in 1861, Congress expelled seventeen members for supporting the rebels, including former Vice President John Breckinridge, who subsequently served as a senator from Kentucky.
Congress expelled 14 members of the Senate, all representing the Southern states except Senator Jessie Bright of Indiana, for supporting the Confederacy, and three members of the House of Representatives: two from Missouri, to which both the Union and the Confederacy had claims made.
Senator William Blount, Tennessee (1797)
Blount, a signer of the Constitution, was expelled from Congress for treason and conspiracy after working with Cherokee and Creek Native Americans to help the British take control of the Spanish-controlled areas of Louisiana and Florida, despite fact that Spain was a US. ally in the time after the Pinckney Treaty of 1795.
Blount devised a plan for natives and frontiersmen to attack the Spanish, take over Florida and Louisiana, and hand them over to the British. A letter detailing the plan fell into the hands of then-President John Adams, who sent the letter to Congress.
By a vote of 25-1, the Senate expelled its first member.
Portrait of Willem Blount