George Santos announces he won’t seek reelection following damning Ethics Committee report

Republican Rep. George Santos announced he will not seek reelection to the House next year, following the Ethics Committee’s release of its long-awaited report on Thursday, concluding that there is “substantial evidence” that the New York congressman used campaign funds for personal purposes.

The report said Santos engaged in “knowing and willful violations” with regard to financial disclosure statements filed with the House, and “knowingly caused his campaign committee to file false or incomplete reports with the Federal Election Commission.”

A statement from the committee accompanying the report said the panel unanimously voted to adopt the report. The 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 these allegations to the Justice Department for further investigation.

Santos announced in a statement that he will not seek reelection following the release of the ethics report, though he remained defiant in the face of the allegations against him and denounced the investigation, calling it a “biased report.”

“It is a disgusting politicized smear that shows the depths of how low our federal government has sunk. Everyone who participated in this grave miscarriage of Justice should all be ashamed of themselves,” Santos wrote of the report in a post on X. He went on to say, “I will however NOT be seeking re-election for a second term in 2024 as my family deserves better than to be under the gun from the press all the time.”

The release of the report is expected to fuel an ongoing push to expel Santos, an effort that has failed in the past despite garnering support from some Republicans. Expulsion is exceedingly rare and requires the high bar of a two-thirds majority vote in the House to succeed. Backers of the push to expel Santos have said they believe the report’s release will be enough to convince more lawmakers to support the effort.

The panel concluded Santos “sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit.”

The panel said that the conduct of the congressman merits “public condemnation, is beneath the dignity of the office, and has brought severe discredit upon the House.”

Santos declined a voluntary interview and also did not submit a written response to the allegations from the Ethics panel.

But the committee decided against issuing a subpoena to Santos because of his likelihood to invoke his Fifth Amendment right and that his testimony “would have low evidentiary value given his admitted practice of embellishment.”

The panel also said Santos “did not fully cooperate” with the investigation.

The release of the report is the latest blow to the New York Republican, who has separately 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. Santos has remained defiant in the face of the mounting legal issues he faces.
 

Supporters of expelling Santos to revive effort

House Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest, a Mississippi Republican, will make a motion to expel Santos as soon as Friday during the pro forma session, a source familiar told CNN, which would tee up action on the issue for when Congress returns from the Thanksgiving recess. The reasoning here is that having Guest make the motion will be seen as less political and give other members more cover to back it, according to sources involved in the planning.

While the committee didn’t include a disciplinary recommendation in its report because that would have taken more time, the fact that the chairman is making the motion will send a strong signal to the rest of the Republican conference — and is a sign this expulsion effort could succeed this time around.

In early November, a Republican-led effort to expel Santos failed in the House. 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, a move that allowed Republicans to avoid weighing in directly on the contentious question of expulsion.

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.