After the lies and embezzlement, the disgrace for the Republican representative of New York, George Santos, who on Friday morning, in a spectacular gesture, was expelled from Congress by his colleagues, less than a year after taking office .
The notorious confabulator thus becomes the sixth American elected official to experience such a fate in the country’s legislative history.
“We should not have come to this,” commented in the wake of the vote, Long Island Republican MP Anthony D’Esposito, who is one of the hundred elected officials from his party who decided to expel Santos. “ [Il] should have taken responsibility and resigned. Now voters in New York’s Third District [que représentait à Washington l’élu destitué] will be able to choose a representative in whom they will be able to trust,” he said, quoted by the New York Times.
The fall of George Santos, who survived two votes calling for his expulsion in recent months, was caused by the publication on November 16 of a damning report revealing that the elected official, a strictly Trumpist, violated several federal criminal laws, before and since taking office.
Over 56 pages, the House Ethics Committee shed light on the misappropriation of several thousand dollars from his campaign funds for personal expenses, including the purchase of luxury products – among others in an Hermès boutique – , of “Botox”, for visits to spas, stays in an Atlantic City hotel and in a Las Vegas hotel, at a time when the deputy nevertheless told his staff that he was “on his honeymoon”.
He also spent more than US$3,300 in one weekend on an Airbnb rental in the Hamptons, while he said he was on leave, and made “small purchases” on OnlyFans, a site specializing in content distribution. for adults.
In total, the representative was guilty of 23 criminal offenses, also including unemployment insurance fraud of US$24,000 during the pandemic, while he held a paid job of US$120,000. Last May, George Santos was indicted by American justice for electronic fraud, money laundering, embezzlement of public funds and false statements to the House of Representatives. He pleaded not guilty.
Friday morning, the elected representatives of the House of Representatives decided by 311 to 114 to end his mandate and thus trigger by-elections in his electoral district. This forced departure also reduces the very slim majority, of barely 4 seats, held by the Republicans in this chamber.
“To hell with this place,” George Santos told a reporter as he left Congress. reported CNN. On Thursday, the elected official was rebellious about the possibility of expulsion, indicating during a press conference that he had no intention of resigning. He also warned his colleagues about a decision that could “haunt them in the future”. According to him, this expulsion now gives the House the power to “remove someone elected by the people simply on the basis of allegations,” he said.
Arriving in Congress during the 2022 midterm elections, George Santos quickly stood out because of the many white threads that weave the story of his political rise.
For example, the man claimed to be a wealthy and successful businessman, grandson of Holocaust survivors, holder of a master’s degree in business administration from New York University and having worked at Citi Group and Goldman. Sachs. He said he owns more than a dozen properties and is the beneficiary of a family trust worth millions of dollars that his mother, who died years after the September 11 attacks due to health problems related to that tragedy, would have left.
“No part of this story was found to be true,” the House investigative committee’s report concluded.
George Santos also took advantage of his position and his status as a rising figure within the radical wing of the Republican Party to embezzle thousands of dollars from his campaign funds, in order to maintain the myth that he built, the extravagances of its daily life, and attract generous donors. His statements are “filled with lies intended to make him appear richer than he was and reinforced the fictional persona he had concocted by falsely reporting more than half a million dollars in loans to the state.” , we can read.
By leaving the House of Representatives in the shame of expulsion, the elected Republican now enters history and into the select club of the rare elected officials struck by such disgrace. In addition to the three representatives expelled for supporting the Confederate States during the Civil War, two others, Michael Joseph Myers in 1980 and the aptly named Jim Traficant in 2002, were shown the door before him after being convicted of corruption, racketeering and evasion tax. George Santos becomes the first in history to be accused of credit card fraud and for fabricating the contents of his resume.