A group of House Republicans from New York are introducing a resolution to expel Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., from Congress.
“Today, I’ll be introducing an expulsion resolution to rid the People’s House of fraudster George Santos,” Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y., said in a post on the social media platform X.
He told reporters he considers Santos “a stain” on the House and on New York state. “It’s time that we move on from George Santos,” D’Esposito said.
He said the resolution will be co-sponsored by fellow New York House Republicans Nick LaLota, Mike Lawler, Marc Molinaro, Nick Langworthy and Brandon Williams.
LaLota said he considers Santos an “immoral” and “untrustworthy” person. “The sooner he’s gone, the better,” he said.
Booting Santos would require a two-thirds vote of the entire House, a benchmark LaLota seemed confident of meeting. “I predict this resolution is going to catch fire. Many people feel how we do,” he said.
The move comes a day after federal prosecutors issued Santos a 23-count superseding indictment alleging he committed identity theft, fraud and other offenses. Santos, who was first indicted in May, has said he plans on fighting the charges. He pleaded not guilty to the charges in the original 13-count indictment earlier this year.
“If they want to be judge, jury and arbitrator of the whole God damn thing let them do it,” Santos said, responding to the resolution as he ran to his office from a Republican conference meeting. “They just want to silence the people of the 3rd congressional district,” he said later.
Santos’s New York GOP colleagues had previously called for him to step down in light of the criminal charges and revelations that he’d fabricated large parts of his resume.
“I said he should resign and he should still resign,” Molinaro said in a post on X Tuesday after the additional charges were announced.
House Democrats moved to expel Santos in May after he was initially charged, but Republicans voted to refer their motion to the House Ethics Committee, which has been investigating Santos since March.
D’Esposito suggested he and his colleagues have waited long enough. “I know that Ethics has been a little busy, but, you know, it’s time that we see some results,” he said.
Santos first came under scrutiny late last year before he was sworn in when The New York Times published a bombshell investigation indicating that much of his résumé appeared to have been manufactured, including claims that he owned numerous properties, was previously employed by Goldman Sachs and Citigroup and had graduated from Baruch College.
It also raised questions about how he was able to lend his campaign $700,000 after having claimed on a campaign finance form during his earlier unsuccessful run in 2020 that he was making $55,000 per year.
Santos acknowledged “embellishing” parts of his background, but insisted he hadn’t done anything criminal and had earned his money legitimately.
The indictment unsealed in May alleged he’d been using campaign donations for personal expenses, including designer clothes, had applied for pandemic unemployment benefits at a time he was making $120,000 a year, and that he lied about his income in House financial documents.
He was hit with 10 additional charges on Tuesday charging he stole people’s identities, made charges on his own donors’ credit cards without their authorization, and “falsely inflated the campaign’s reported receipts with non-existent loans and contributions that were either fabricated or stolen,” said Breon Peace, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
One of the alleged schemes included falsely claiming that 10 relatives of Santos and his then-campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks, had donated big bucks to his campaign to make it appear that he was raising more money than he actually was in order to qualify for assistance from the national party.
“Santos and Marks both knew that these individuals had neither made the reported contributions nor given authorization for their personal information to be included in such false public reports,” prosecutors said.
Marks pleaded guilty to related conspiracy charges last week. Santos, who was released on $500,000 bond after pleading not guilty to the original charges, is scheduled to be arraigned on the superseding indictment on Oct. 27.
Santos has called the charges against him a “witch hunt” and vowed not to resign.
