Republican fabulist George Santos has been expelled from Congress in an extraordinary vote after his long history of lying was exposed and he faced multiple criminal charges.
The Long Island congressman, who stole donor funds to spend on OnlyFans and Botox, fled Capitol Hill and ignored reporters as he became only the sixth House member in history to be kicked out.
More than 100 Republicans joined Democrats on Friday to out the fabled liar in a historic vote by a total of 311 to 114.
Santos stormed off the House floor minutes before the vote that sealed his fate ended. He warned reporters immediately afterwards that the House of Representatives had “set a new dangerous precedent for itself.”
Faced with the huge number of votes, 35-year-old serial fabulist George Santos remained defiant to the end, but said he would leave Congress if it is “God's will.”
His mountains of lies include fabricating family connections to the Holocaust, his mother's murder on September 11, working on Wall Street, recovering from a brain tumor, being of Ukrainian Jewish descent and starting of a charity.
It marks the sixth time in history that Congress has voted to expel a member. And it marks the first time a member has been expelled without a conviction or for supporting the Confederacy during the Civil War.
Santos, R-N.Y., has been expelled from Congress
Santos survived a vote to expel him last 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. A two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives is required to expel a sitting member of Congress.
The damning ethics report alleged he improperly used campaign contributions to pay for Botox treatments, Hermes bags, OnlyFans purchases and casino withdrawals.
Now, Republicans' slim majority in the House of Representatives is even smaller, and the Republican Party can only afford three votes. The new breakdown totals 221 Republicans and 213 Democrats.
Despite denying it, internet sleuths appear to have discovered that Santos – who is said to have been pictured here dressed in drag in 2007 – himself confirmed it in a 2011 post on Wikipedia.
Some in the Republican leadership — including Speaker Mike Johnson and GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik — have been reluctant to expel Santos because he has not been convicted in court for his alleged crimes.
Santos has pleaded not guilty in federal court to 23 charges, including identity theft, charging his donors' credit cards without their consent and filing false campaign reports. He is not expected to appear in court until September next year.
The now public ethics report found that Santos had used campaign money and donations to finance a lavish lifestyle, engaged in fraud, filed false election reports and “intentionally” violated ethics.
The freshman member called his expulsion vote and the report “theatre for the American people at the expense of the American people because no real work is being done.”
'I have accepted fate. I believe that if it is God's will to keep me here, I will stay. And if it is His will that I leave, I will leave, and I will do so graciously,” he said told Fox & Friends in an interview hours before he was to be judged by his peers.
In addition, Santos has already pleaded not guilty in federal court to 23 charges, including identity theft, charging his donors' credit cards without their consent and filing false campaign reports.
He is not expected to appear in court until September next year.
The Ethics Commission said two charges of $1,500 and one $1,400 on the congressman's debit card, which were not submitted to the FEC, were listed as “Botox.”
The report notes another $20,000 from the campaign went to Santos' company Devolder, whose account had a negative balance at the time. From there, the money was used to make $6,000 worth of purchases in Ferragamo, withdraw $800 in cash at a casino, withdraw another $1,000 in cash near Santos' apartment and pay his rent.
The report found that Santos also received refunds to his personal account for money he never loaned to the campaign.
Ethics reports the most important conclusions:
- HThe ethics committee found that Santos “fraudulently sought to exploit every aspect of his candidacy for the House of Representatives for his own personal financial gain.”
- Says Long Island lawmaker was 'willing participant' in 'complex web of unlawful activities'
- Santos spent thousands in campaign funds on Botox treatments and trips to Atlantic City with his husband
- The Republican used $3,000 in campaign money for an Airbnb in the Hamptons
- The transfer to his company was used for $6,000 in luxury Ferragamo goods, to pay his rent and for $800 in a casino
- Santos made a purchase on his campaign payment card bill as 'Botox'
- Santos told his campaign staff that he had a Maserati, despite there being no evidence that he had ever owned one
- He has blown six personal loans for his campaign. He claimed they were worth $80,000 when they were only $3,500
- Santos has pleaded not guilty in federal court to 23 charges, including identity theft, charging donors' credit cards without authorization and filing false campaign finance reports.
The now public ethics report found that Santos had used campaign money and donations to finance a lavish lifestyle, engaged in fraud, filed false election reports and “intentionally” violated ethics.
Congressman George Santos said he will introduce a measure to expel Representative Jamaal Bowman for setting off a fire alarm ahead of a vote in the House of Representatives to impeach Santos himself
The insurgent New York Republican emphasized again that he will not resign; he will force his colleagues to depose him and will go down fighting.
He increased the six personal loans he had made for the campaign – which actually amounted to $3,500, but he said would amount to as much as $80,000.
“Representative Santos attempted to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his candidacy for the House of Representatives for his own personal financial gain,” the report said.
Announcing that he would not run for re-election but would remain in Congress until the end of his term, Santos wrote on X: “My family deserves better than to be under constant fire from the press.”
The other lies the notorious liar told encompassed almost every aspect of his life.
In an interview, Santos said that his maternal surname was the historically Jewish name “Zabrovsky.”
“My grandfather was born in Kiev and left in the late 1920s and migrated to Belgium, where he met my grandmother and then started a family,” Santos told Fox Digital in February. “We do not carry the Ukrainian surname because many people who are descendants of World War II shelters or Holocaust survivors have changed many names or paperwork in the name of survival.”
Santos wrote in a July 2021 tweet that he “blocked” an account stating “9/11 was a victimless crime” because his mother was a victim of the terrorist attack.
He wrote, “September 11 claimed my mother's life… so I'm blocking it so I never have to read this again,” after the user responded to a tweet from Santos about immigration.
However, an obituary for Santos' mother states that she died in December 2016, more than 15 years after the attack occurred.
He also confirmed the real date in a December 2021 tweet, saying, “December 23 this year marks five years since I lost my best friend and mentor. Mom, you will live in my heart forever.”
Santos' campaign website said his mother “survived the tragic events of September 11” in the South Tower office of the World Trade Center and died “a few years later when she lost her battle with cancer.”
In a New York Times report, Santos' mother was described as a “housekeeper” or “housekeeper.”
On his campaign website, his mother was described as a top executive.
“George's work ethic comes from his mother, who came from nothing but worked her way up to become the first female director at a major financial institution,” the website says.
Santos' expulsion from the House of Representatives is immediate and New York Governor Kathy Hochul will have to declare the seat vacant and call for a special election to fill his position.