adminDemocratic Rep. Robert Garcia of California has put forward a resolution to expel indicted Rep. George Santos in the wake of a damning House Ethics Committee investigation into the New York Republican.
The resolution from Garcia is privileged, which will require GOP leadership to take up the matter within two legislative days, though it could potentially be pre-empted if leadership calls up another expulsion resolution first. Before Thanksgiving, House GOP Rep. Michael Guest, a Republican from Mississippi and the Ethics Committee chair, introduced his own resolution to expel Santos.
Santos has survived previous attempts to oust him from the House, but there is growing momentum for this latest effort. Following the ethics investigation, a number of Republicans who had previously not backed expulsion indicated that they would now vote in favor.
It’s still not yet clear though whether there will be enough votes to expel Santos. Expulsion is exceedingly rare and requires a two-thirds majority vote in the House to succeed.
The renewed push to expel Santos presents a leadership test for House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota said Tuesday that Johnson has not yet decided how he will handle efforts to expel Santos this week. Emmer indicated that Johnson will make a decision later in the day on the path forward.
Emmer dismissed the effort from Garcia to force their hand by offering his own privileged resolution to get rid of Santos, saying they don’t care what Democrats do. He also insisted they will not whip the vote if it comes to the floor.
Following the release of the ethics report, a spokesman for the speaker said the report had “very troubling findings” and that Johnson urged lawmakers, including Santos, “to consider the best interests of the institution as this matter is addressed further.”
In its report, the Ethics Committee said it uncovered additional “uncharged and unlawful conduct” by Santos that go beyond the criminal allegations already pending against him, and would immediately refer the allegations to the Justice Department for further investigation.
The committee concluded that Santos “sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit.”
Santos announced that he would not seek reelection following the release of the committee’s report, though he has remained defiant and denounced the investigation, calling it a “biased report.”
Separately, Santos has also pleaded not guilty to 23 federal charges, including allegations of fraud related to Covid-19 unemployment benefits, misusing campaign funds and lying about his personal finances on House disclosure reports.
In early November, a Republican-led effort to expel Santos failed. A number of lawmakers had expressed concern over the prospect of expelling a member facing an as-yet unfinished legal battle and absent a criminal conviction. Ahead of the vote, Santos defended his right to “the presumption of innocence.”
In May, the House voted to refer a Democrat-led resolution to expel Santos to the Ethics Committee.
Read the full article here
