The U.S. House ethics committee in a scathing report Thursday said it has amassed “overwhelming evidence” of lawbreaking by Rep. George Santos of New York that has been sent to the U.S. Justice Department, concluding flatly that the Republican “cannot be trusted” after a months-long investigation into his conduct.
Shortly after the panel’s report was released, Santos blasted it as a “politicized smear” in a social media post, but said that he would not be seeking re-election for a second term. He gave no indication he would step aside before his term ends next year, vowing to pursue his “conservative values in my remaining time in Congress.”
But a renewed effort to expel him from the House was quickly launched. The House could vote on his expulsion as soon as it returns from the Thanksgiving holiday later this month.
The panel said that Santos knowingly caused his campaign committee to file false or incomplete reports with the Federal Election Commission; used campaign funds for personal purposes; and engaged in violations of the Ethics in Government Act as it relates to financial disclosure statements filed with the House.
Santos ‘evaded’ inquiry’s requests
“Representative Santos sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit,” an investigative subcommittee said in a 56-page report detailing its findings to the full Ethics Committee.
The ethics panel’s report also detailed Santos’s lack of co-operation with its investigation and how he “evaded” straightforward requests for information. “Particularly troubling was Representative Santos’ lack of candour during the investigation itself,” the committee determined.
The panel tasked with investigating the allegations against Santos provided him the chance to submit a signed, written statement in response to the allegations made against him, to provide documents responsive to the panel’s request for information, and to provide a statement under oath. But he did not do so, the report said.
The information that he did provide, according to the committee, “included material misstatements that further advanced falsehoods he made during his 2022 campaign.”
Expenses included Botox, Vegas hotels
The committee’s investigative panel said that without Santos’ co-operation it was unable to verify whether some expenses reported by his campaign were legitimate. But certain expenses on their face did not appear to have a campaign nexus.
For example, it cited $2,281 US spent at resorts in Atlantic City and $1,400 spent at a skin spa for what one spreadsheet described as “Botox.”
The panel also identified a $3,332 expense for a hotel stay, though the campaign’s calendar indicated he was “off at the Hampton’s for the weekend.”
And there were tax and hotel charges on the campaign credit card from Las Vegas, during a time Santos told his campaign staff he was on his honeymoon and there were no corresponding campaign events on the calendar.
The report says that an investigative subcommittee decided to forgo bringing formal charges because it would have resulted in a “lengthy trial-like public adjudication and sanctions hearing” that only would have given Santos “further opportunity to delay any accountability.”
The committee decided instead to send the full report to the House. It urges House members “to take any action they deem appropriate and necessary” based on the report.
Separate criminal indictment
The findings by the investigative panel may be the least of Santos’s worries.
The congressman faces a 23-count federal indictment that alleges he stole the identities of campaign donors and then used their credit cards to make tens of thousands of dollars in unauthorized charges.
Federal prosecutors say Santos, who has pleaded not guilty, wired some of the money to his personal bank account and used the rest to pad his campaign coffers.
Santos, who represents parts of Queens and Long Island, is also accused of falsely reporting to the Federal Elections Commission that he had loaned his campaign $500,000 US when he actually hadn’t given anything and had less than $8,000 in the bank.
The fake loan was an attempt to convince Republican Party officials that he was a serious candidate, worth their financial support, the indictment says.
The Justice Department declined to comment about the ethics report, as did the Brooklyn U.S. attorney’s office, which is handling the case against Santos.
Earlier this week, a former fundraiser for Santos pleaded guilty to a federal wire fraud charge, admitting he impersonated a high-ranking congressional aide while raising campaign cash for the congressman.
Santos easily survived a vote earlier this month to expel him from the House as most Republicans and 31 Democrats opted to withhold punishment while both his criminal trial and the House Ethics Committee investigation continued. But the committee’s report could prove to be a game-changer.
Rep. Susan Wild, for example, the ranking Democrat on the Ethics Committee, said she was no longer obligated to maintain neutrality because the committee’s work is now complete.
“I intend to vote yes on any privileged expulsion resolution that is brought forward,” Wild said.
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