Washington — Embattled Republican Rep. George Santos of New York is set to address the public Thursday as the House prepares to take up a third resolution to expel him from Congress, two weeks after the House Ethics Committee said it found "overwhelming evidence" that he violated federal law.
It's unclear what Santos will say during the press conference, which he said would take place at 8 a.m. outside the Capitol. He has repeatedly resisted pressure to step down from Congress amid allegations he stole from donors, used campaign contributions for personal expenses and fraudulently collected unemployment benefits, among other accusations by the Justice Department.
Santos has remained defiant amid his ongoing legal and professional troubles, even as the ranks of his Republican colleagues supporting his ouster have grown. Still, the freshman congressman said last week that he expects to be expelled from the House, though he chastised his fellow House members for smearing him and accused them of engaging in their own misconduct.
A vote on expelling Santos could happen as soon as Thursday, and the effort poses the biggest threat yet to his congressional career.
The Santos expulsion resolutions
Two lawmakers moved Tuesday to force action on separate resolutions seeking to remove Santos from Congress, setting up votes in the House before the week's end.
One of the measures, from GOP Rep. Michael Guest, the chair of the Ethics Committee, was introduced shortly after the panel's findings were published. Rep. Anthony D'Esposito, Santos' GOP colleague in the New York congressional delegation, moved to fast-track it under House rules. The other, a privileged resolution from Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia of California, was introduced Tuesday.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday that he has "real reservations" about expelling Santos, but GOP leaders are not urging their members to vote a certain way.
"We're going to allow people to vote their conscience," Johnson said during the Republican leadership's weekly news conference. "I think it's the only appropriate thing we can do. We've not whipped the vote, and we wouldn't. I trust that people will make that decision thoughtfully and in good faith."
Santos is not running for a second term in the House. After the Ethics Committee released its report, he announced that he would not seek to hold on to his seat, though he had signaled in March that he would mount a reelection bid.
Calls for Santos to step down have been persistent throughout his tenure in the House, which began over 11 months ago. The initial calls came after Santos admitted to embellishing parts of his resume and background during his 2022 campaign for Congress. However, the pressure for him to resign intensified after he was indicted by the Justice Department.
Santos maintains his innocence and has pleaded not guilty to all the federal charges. He has also accused those who want him expelled of acting as "judge, jury, and executioner."
The Report from the Ethics Committee
In March, the Ethics Committee released a report detailing its findings. Over the course of a seven-month investigation, the committee gathered "substantial evidence" that Santos had violated the law. The report accuses him of engaging in a "complex web" of illegal activities involving his campaign, personal finances, and business finances. Congressional investigators discovered that Santos had misused campaign contributions to cover personal expenses, including purchases at luxury retailers, resorts, and cosmetic treatments.
They also said that while Santos pledged to cooperate with the committee's probe, he engaged in "obfuscation and delay" with the panel. Though the congressman has blamed his former campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks, for campaign finance violations, House investigators said Santos was "a knowing and active participant in the misconduct."
"Because this precedent sets a new era of due process, which means you are guilty until proven innocent, we will take your accusations and use it to smear, to mangle, to destroy you and remove you from society. That is what they are doing with this," he said last week.
Santos survived two earlier efforts to expel him from Congress, when lawmakers voted not to punish him because of his ongoing criminal case and the Ethics Committee probe. But many of his colleagues reversed their positions after congressional investigators completed their review.
