The U.S. House of Representatives has officially voted to expel controversial New York Rep. George Santos following an effort spearheaded by Mississippi Rep. Michael Guest.
Guest, who chairs the House Ethics Committee, led the charge to oust Santos after evidence emerged that he had used campaign funds for personal expenses.
A 56-page report filed by the ethics committee in mid-November detailed that Santos had filed multiple false reports with the Federal Election Commission. He is accused of using money intended for his campaign for expenditures on trips to a spa, at luxury stores, and even on OnlyFans — an internet content subscription service used primarily by sex workers who produce pornographic content.
“He had an unregistered group called Red Stone Strategies that was really an unregistered FEC super PAC that he was enriching himself. That money was not flowing to his campaign. Money was flowing to him personally,” Guest explained on MidDays with Gerard Gibert. “The amount of fraud and abuse was something that is unprecedented. We’ve never seen that before.”
The New York congressman argues that his expulsion sets a dangerous precedent since he has not been convicted of a crime. Nonetheless, the embattled congressman has been indicted on 23 counts of credit card fraud, falsification of records, identity theft, and wire fraud, among other charges.
Santos is one of six members of the U.S. House to have been expelled and the most recent since Ohio Democrat Jim Traficant was ousted in 2002.
