House Ethics Committee Releases Report On George Santos

The House Ethics Committee released a long-awaited report on its investigation into embattled Rep. George Santos on Thursday, finding that there was "substantial evidence" of wrongdoing by the congressman.

The committee said in a statement announcing the release of its findings that the investigative subcommittee tasked with examining allegations of misconduct of Santos "unanimously concluded that there was substantial evidence" that he knowingly caused his campaign committee to file false or incomplete reports with the Federal Election Commission, used campaign funds for personal purposes, engaged in fraudulent content and engaged in "knowing and willful" violations of federal ethics law related to financial disclosure statements filed with the House.

The full ethics panel unanimously voted to refer the evidence of Santos' alleged violations to the Justice Department, it said.

"Representative Santos sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit," the subcommittee said in its report to the full House Ethics Committee.

The scathing report could give momentum to another effort to remove the New York Republican from Congress and possibly change the minds of those who have been hesitant to support his expulsion. 

The committee did not make recommendations about punishment for Santos. Mississippi GOP Rep. Michael Guest, the committee's chairman, said ahead of the report's release that it would be up to House lawmakers to decide how to proceed. 

Guest said Wednesday that making such recommendations "would have taken several more months" and that the information in the report "would be enough for members to be able to make a decision as to whether or not they believe it would be proper to expel Rep. Santos." 

The bipartisan committee announced in March that it had opened a broad investigation into Santos to determine whether he had "engaged in unlawful activity" during his 2022 campaign, violated federal conflict of interest laws and failed to properly fill out his House financial disclosure forms. 

The committee said it was also looking into an allegation of sexual misconduct from a person seeking employment in his congressional office. 

Since then, the committee has given two updates on its investigation. In June, committee leaders announced more than 30 subpoenas and dozens of voluntary requests for information. About two weeks ago, committee leaders revealed investigators had contacted about 40 witnesses, reviewed more than 170,000 pages of documents and authorized 37 subpoenas. They said the investigation has taken "countless hours" and involved "a significant amount" of resources. 

The report comes about two weeks after Santos survived a second attempt to expel him from Congress as he faces nearly two dozen federal indictment charges. Santos has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. 

Santos faced his first expulsion attempt in May, when Democrats sought to remove him from Congress after he was first charged with fraud, money laundering and other crimes. Republicans blocked that effort and instead referred the matter to the Ethics Committee. 

But a group of his fellow New York Republicans renewed the effort to expel him in October after he was hit with more charges accusing him of stealing campaign donors' identities and putting thousands of dollars in unauthorized charges on their credit cards, falsifying campaign finance reports, money laundering and more. 

That vote fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to oust a member under the Constitution, as most Republicans and 31 Democrats withheld support for punishing him while the Ethics Committee investigation and his criminal trial proceed. 

"I stand firmly in my innocence," Santos said ahead of the vote. 

If the expulsion had been successful, Santos would have become just the sixth House member to be expelled from Congress. The most recent expulsion came in 2002, when Ohio Rep. James Traficant was removed from office after he was convicted of 10 corruption-related felonies.

Rep. Nick LaLota, one of the Republicans from the New York delegation who sought to expel Santos, said Wednesday it's "quite likely" there will be another expulsion vote and blamed the Ethics Committee's statement in October for taking the "wind out of the sails of the expulsion efforts." 

"We've been told that certain members of our conference and across the aisle, as well, want to hang their hat on something like an Ethics Committee report," LaLota said Wednesday. 

GOP Rep. Bruce Westerman of Arkansas, who voted against expelling Santos, said Wednesday, "It's going to be tough for him to survive a vote" if there's "credible evidence" in the committee's report. 

Ellis Kim and Jaala Brown contributed reporting.