16 November 2023
The House Ethics Committee in a report released Thursday said there is clear evidence that Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) committed serious crimes, though it stopped short of recommending formal sanctions, as some had hoped it would do.
The panel referred its findings of “potential violations of federal criminal law” to the Department of Justice, and its report will raise questions about whether the House will expel Santos, who has been a subject of controversy since before he formally became a member of Congress.
“[T]he evidence uncovered by the Investigative Subcommittee (ISC) revealed that Representative George Santos cannot be trusted,” the report reads. “At nearly every opportunity, he placed his desire for private gain above his duty to uphold the Constitution, federal law, and ethical principles.”
While the committee did not make a formal recommendation on expulsion, as Chair Michael Guest (R-Miss.) told previously reporters would be the case, the top lawmakers on the panel said “Santos’ conduct warrants public condemnation, is beneath the dignity of the office, and has brought severe discredit to the House.”
In a statement accompanying the report, the chair and ranking member of the panel said there is “substantial evidence” to show that Santos “knowingly caused his campaign committee to file false or incomplete reports with the Federal Election Commission; used campaign funds for personal purposes; engaged in fraudulent conduct in connection with RedStone Strategies LLC; and engaged in knowing and willful violations of the Ethics in Government Act as it relates to his Financial Disclosure (FD) Statements filed with the House.”
The final product is sure to exacerbate the controversy surrounding Santos, who is facing 23 federal criminal counts and has already endured two expulsion efforts — with a third likely on the horizon.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) said in a statement following the report’s release that he plans to submit a privileged resolution to expel Santos when the House returns Nov. 28, which will force another vote on the matter.
The report says the first-term congressman “sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidate for his own personal benefit,” writing that he “blatantly stole from his campaign” and “deceived donors into providing what they thought were contributions to his campaign but were in fact payments for his personal benefit.”
The panel also found that Santos “reported fictitious loans to political committees to induce donors and party committees to make further contributions to his campaign — and then diverted more campaign money to himself as purported ‘repayments’ of those fictitious loans.”
“He used his connections to high value donors and other political campaigns to obtain additional funds for himself through fraudulent or otherwise questionable business dealings,” adding that he “sustained all of this through a constant series of lies to his constituents, donors, and staff about his background and experience.”
The scathing report tore into Santos for his “obfuscation and delay,” saying that his “lack of candor during the investigation itself” was “particularly troubling.”
Despite Santos repeatedly saying in public that he would like to prove his innocence, the committee said Santos declined to submit a signed statement responding to the allegations in the report, declined to voluntarily provide documents and information to the investigators, and declined to provide a statement under oath.
Nonetheless, the committee said it “compiled a voluminous record consisting of over 170,000 pages of documents and testimony from dozens of witnesses, including financial statements, contemporaneous communications, and other materials.”
The Hill reached out to Santos for comment.
Several New York Republicans have led the months-long effort to expel Santos, which has so far proven unsuccessful amid the ongoing Ethics and Justice Department investigations. Without a formal conviction, even some Democrats have defended Santos’s right to remain in Congress, as other indicted lawmakers have done in years past.
It remains unclear if the release of the Ethics report — which did not propose formal sanctions — will sway any of Santos’s defenders in either party. But the leaders of the expulsion effort are hoping that’s the case.
“Many of my colleagues want to hang their hat on a report like that before they vote yes,” Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) said Wednesday as the House was leaving Washington for the long holiday recess.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who voted to expel Santos earlier this month, suggested this week that a formal sanctions recommendation from Ethics isn’t necessary to remove him, as long as the committee’s report “clearly justifies expulsion.”
Updated at 10:41 a.m. ET