The Wild Reveals That Led To George Santos' Expulsion From Congress, Explained

Congress has found something that it can agree on in today's partisan world — the expulsion of New York Republican George Santos. With a vote of 311 from both Democrats and Republicans, Santos is now the sixth person in history to be expelled from the U.S. House of Representatives. Those who voted against his expulsion included Jim Jordan, the man Donald Trump spoke to before the January 6 riot. Santos had endorsed Trump as the Republican candidate for president in 2024; no word yet from Trump about his thoughts on Santos's historic expulsion. The first three House members were expelled in 1861 for fighting for the Confederacy. Santos was expelled before being criminally convicted, though as of his expulsion, his trial date is set for September 2024.

A bipartisan Investigative Subcommittee report to the House Ethics Committee, which marked the end of their eight-month investigation into Santos, is what led to Santos's expulsion. In it, they found that Santos, "sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit," and he kept it up through a "constant series of lies."

During his 2020 campaign, which he lost, he charged $1,500 at Mizra Aesthetics for Botox to the campaign credit card. He spent an additional $1,400 of campaign money on Botox at Virtual Skin Spa — neither payment was included in any reports to the Federal Election Commission nor were donors told that's how their money was being used. Additional spa payments were also uncovered.

A former staffer said George Santos told him that "he enjoyed visiting casinos to play roulette, often with his husband," according to the Investigative Subcommittee report. That certainly seems to line up with how Santos allegedly used campaign cash. He spent over $2,000 at resorts in Atlantic City in July 2022 with no campaign events on his schedule during his time there. 

A credit card for his campaign was used to pay for travel expenses in Las Vegas in 2021. While there could theoretically have been campaign events in Nevada, it was during a time when Santos said he was on his honeymoon — decidedly not a campaign event. He frequently traveled out of state using campaign funds. When questioned by an aide about this, Santos reportedly said, "but these are donor dinners or constituent dinners or, you know, perspective [sic] donor dinners."

He also spent $6,000 in campaign money at Ferragamo and more than $4,000 at Hermes. Smaller amounts were spent at Sephora and OnlyFans, a subscription service often used for adult content. Santos denied knowing much about OnlyFans in a Fox Business interview with Kennedy in March 2023: "I'll indulge you this. I just discovered what OnlyFans was about three weeks ago when it was brought up in a discussion in my office. I was oblivious to the whole concept." In response, Kennedy said under her breath, "You just can't tell the truth."

Kennedy's comment in March 2023 that George Santos can't tell the truth wasn't the first time he was accused of lying. Shortly after his election in November 2022, The New York Times published an investigative piece into Santos. It said that, among other things, Santos falsified financial records and lied about his educational and career background during his campaign. "My sins here are embellishing my resume. I'm sorry," Santos later admitted to the New York Post.

Among his "embellishments" were working for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs and having a degree from Baruch College in New York. He has also at various times claimed Jewish ancestry with grandparents who had been through the Holocaust, that his niece was once kidnapped potentially in a way to target him by the Chinese government, and that his mother was in the World Trade Center on 9/11 — all claims were looked into and none seemed to be confirmed by independent sources.

In May 2023, Santos was charged with 13 counts, including money laundering and wire fraud. He pleaded not guilty. In October 2023, additional charges from the Department of Justice were brought against Santos. Before the vote count in the House was completed for his expulsion, Santos left the chamber. On the House steps outside, he said, "Why would I want to stay here? To hell with this place," via CNN. A special election will be held to replace Santos before 2024.