Fellow Republicans introduce privileged resolution to expel George Santos from House

A handful of House Republican lawmakers filed a privileged resolution late Thursday to expel Rep. George Santos from Congress.

The expulsion measure, which requires a 2/3 majority of the lower chamber for passage, was introduced by Rep. Anthony D’Esposito and co-sponsored by Reps. Brandon Williams, Mike Lawler, Nick LaLota and Marc Molinaro. All sponsoring members are New York Republicans.

The resolution, first announced on Oct. 11, states that “George Santos is not fit to serve” as a congressman, was read on the House floor by Mr. D’Esposito on Thursday afternoon.

“While George Santos is entitled to his day in court to plead his innocence, the people of New York’s 3rd Congressional District deserve a representative who is solely focused on serving the public and not spending the majority of their time combating 23 federal charges such as wire fraud, money laundering and theft of public funds,” he said. “We must remove this conman from Congress.”

It cites pending criminal charges against Mr. Santos, his admitted lies about his background and his “history of misrepresenting his and his family’s connections to major events, including the Holocaust, Sept. 11th terrorist attacks, and the Pulse nightclub shooting.”

The move by Mr. D’Esposito comes just one day after officials announced Mr. Santos was facing ten new federal charges in addition to the 13 charges of wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds, and lying to Congress — charges to which he had pleaded not guilty in May.

He is expected to do the same on the new charges Friday.

The privileged resolution filed by Mr. D’Esposito to expel Mr. Santos requires the House to hold a floor vote on the measure within two legislative days of Thursday’s filing.

Mr. Santos is scheduled to be arraigned on Friday on a superseding indictment in his federal fraud case.

“George Santos’ many deceptions coupled with the ever-expanding legal case against him further strengthen my long-held belief that he is unfit to serve in Congress, and for that reason, I will be sponsoring a resolution to immediately expel George Santos from the House of Representatives,” Mr. D’Esposito said in a statement.

Mr. Santos, in a social media post Thursday, responded to Mr. D’Esposito’s expulsion measure and said he was entitled to due process.

“Three points of clarification: 1. I have not cleared out my office. 2. I’m not resigning. 3. I’m entitled to due process and not a predetermined outcome as some are seeking. God bless!”

The Washington Times reached out to Mr. Santos’ office for comment but did not immediately hear back.

Newly elected Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, is taking a similar position on Mr. Santos espoused by his Republican predecessor, then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California, who said Mr. Santos deserved his day in court and should not be expelled before then.

“George Santos is due due process … and we have to allow the process to play itself out,” Mr. Johnson told Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity in an interview that aired Thursday evening.

Mr. D’Esposito and his fellow New York Republicans were not the first lawmakers to bring up an expulsion measure against Mr. Santos.

Rep. Robert Garcia, California Democrat, also raised a privileged resolution to expel Mr. Santos last May. However, the House’s GOP majority voted to send the resolution to the ethics committee.

Mr. D’Esposito and other co-sponsors had backed that position then.

But Mr. Lawler told reporters that the New York Republicans’ expulsion resolution and Mr. Garcia’s resolution are different, because Mr. Santos’ former treasurer pleaded guilty in court earlier this month.

“I think the difference between this and what the Democrats had brought is that you have a guilty plea in court by his treasurer, confirming significant details and obviously a superseding indictment based on that conviction and guilty plea by his treasurer,” Mr. Lawler told reporters.

“When the original expulsion resolution was referred to Ethics, is because you need a level of due process here. And in order to get a two-thirds vote, people need to be able to base something on. You have that with the guilty plea of his treasurer.

The House has expelled just two members in recent decades — Rep. Michael J. “Ozzie” Myers, Pennsylvania Democrat, in 1980, and Rep. James Traficant, Ohio Democrat, in 2002.

But both expulsions occurred after the lawmaker had been convicted on federal charges, and came in overwhelming and bipartisan votes.

Several other lawmakers have resigned rather than risk expulsion after indictments or convictions.