Santos says he’ll stand for expulsion vote

Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) on Monday said he will stand for a likely third vote on his expulsion from Congress in the wake of a scathing House ethics report detailing alleged violations of federal crimes.

“Setting the record straight, My conversation with the speaker was positive and I told him id be standing for the expulsion vote,” Santos wrote in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Expel me and set the precedent so we can see who the judge, jury and executioners in Congress are.”

“The American people deserve to know!” he added.

The post came shortly after Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters Monday that he spoke with the embattled lawmaker “at some length” during the holiday recess “about his options.”

Santos acknowledged last week that he thinks he will get expelled when a vote hits the floor, which could come as soon as this week.

“I know I’m going to get expelled when this expulsion resolution goes to the floor,” Santos said Friday during a conversation on X Spaces. “I’ve done the math over and over, and it doesn’t look really good.” 

Santos avoided two expulsion attempts earlier this year, though a handful of lawmakers who previously backed him said they will now vote for expulsion after the House Ethics Committee released its report on the New York lawmaker earlier this month.

The highly-anticipated report, which came after a months-long investigation, detailed “substantial evidence” that the lawmaker violated federal crimes.

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The report said Santos “cannot be trusted” and that “at nearly every opportunity, he placed his desire for private gain above his duty to uphold the Constitution, federal law, and ethical principles.”

The New York Republican faces 23 federal charges accusing him of inflating campaign finance reports, charging donors’ credit cards without authorization, misleading donors, fraudulently receiving unemployment benefits and lying on House financial disclosures.

He pleaded not guilty to these charges in May and the trial is expected to begin in September 2024.

Santos admitted earlier this year to embellishing parts of his background but has largely rejected calls to step down from the lower chamber and denied the charges against him.

Shortly after the Ethics report was released, Santos announced he would no longer run for reelection in 2024 in an apparent reversal of plans, after telling reporters weeks before that he would run even if expelled from the House.