The U.S. House of Representatives will vote on a resolution to expel Congressman George Santos (R-NY), after he was criminally indicted on 13 federal felony charges last week. The resolution comes not from his own caucus, which historically would have filed the motion to protect their ranks’ credibility, but from U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, a Democrat from California.
Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy has been urging members to instead vote to send the resolution to the House Ethics Committee, where it likely will stall, or, as some Democrats and Democratic staffers suggest, DOJ would likely ask the Committee to pause its investigation.
Democratic House Whip Katherine Clark has been urging members to vote “no” on the GOP’s attempts to move the resolution to the Ethics Committee, reports Axios’ Andrew Solender.
Aaron Fritschner, the Deputy Chief of Staff for U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), on Twitter called McCarthy’s moves to reroute the resolution to committee a “dodge.”
“Ethics won’t do this and Kevin McCarthy 100% knows that. He’s just trying to give his people a dishonest excuse for a bad, dishonest vote. They are lying to you and to their constituents, and nobody will know that unless you guys tell them.”
In addition to the 13 federal criminal felony charges, Santos is already a facing House Ethics Committee investigation, which commenced on March 2. He recently admitted to charges from his time living in Brazil.
“In late December,” TIME reported in March, “prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York reportedly began a federal probe into Santos’ finances. The office has not confirmed whether it is investigating him. However, a man who accused Santos of improperly keeping funds that were raised to save the man’s dying dog told Politico that two FBI agents contacted him on behalf of the office in early February.”
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) may be looking into Santos, after it informed him in March that his campaign had “accepted an apparently illegal campaign contribution,” Raw Story reported.
TIME notes that the Dept. of Justice “asked the FEC to hold off on any enforcement action against Santos as it conducts a criminal probe, according to the Washington Post,” and adds: “The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also interviewed two people this year about Santos’ involvement with a firm that shut down in 2021 after the SEC accused it of running a ‘classic Ponzi scheme,’ the Post reported.”
There are also reports New York Attorney General Letitia James and Nassau County, NY District Attorney Anne Donnelly, a Republican, had been investigating Santos.
A two-thirds margin is needed for the resolution to expel to pass.
C-SPAN will air the House’s floor activities, starting at 5:00 PM ET. You can watch it on cable or online. NCRM will embed live video when it becomes available.