Embattled Rep. George Santos Faces House Ethics Committee Investigation

Embattled New York Rep. George Santos is facing a House Ethics Committee investigation for his alleged lies over his background and discrepancies within his campaign finances.

The committee's probe will cover various areas where the Republican faces accusations of misconduct in formal complaints. These include one that was filed by two of his House colleagues.

George Santos Faces House Ethics Investigation

In a statement, the top-ranking Republican and Democratic members of the House Ethics Committee said that they are seeking to determine whether or not Santos failed to fill out his House financial disclosure forms properly. They are also looking to prove whether or not he violated federal conflict of interest laws or engaged in any other type of unlawful activity during his congressional campaign in 2022.

Officials will also look into an allegation of sexual misconduct from a prospective congressional aide who worked in Santos' office for a brief moment. The investigation comes as the House Ethics Committee does not usually take up an aggressive pursuit of inquiries.

However, critics argued that the body moves too slowly and only has a few options to punish lawmakers for misconduct. In a Twitter post, the Republican lawmaker said he would fully cooperate with the committee's investigation but declined to comment further on the matter, as per the New York Times.

The probe adds to the mounting legal and political pressure on the New York representative after it was revealed that he lied about many parts of his life's story. That was followed by the reveal of serious discrepancies in his campaign finances, including unexplained spending of $365,000.

Brazilian prosecutors also revived fraud charges against Santos tied to a 2008 incident involving a stolen checkbook. The Republican House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, based Santos' fate in Congress on the findings of the House Ethics Committee.

However, the timeline for the inquiry of the committee remains unclear and it usually defers to law enforcement agencies in the chances that its investigation overlaps with theirs. This is a practice that could impede the House investigation.

Calls To Resign

In February, Santos said he was not worried about a potential House Ethics Committee probe or his colleagues calling on him to resign. The Republican lawmaker suggested during an interview with Piers Morgan that local grassroots campaigns that were demanding for him to step down were not representative of the district, according to CNN.

Despite all of his denials, a poll released on Monday by Siena College showed that roughly 66% of New York residents supported his ousting, which includes 58% of Republicans. Pollster Steven Greenberg said that the silver lining was that Santos was able to unify Democrats, Republicans, and Independents against a single political figure. Still, the bad news is that it was him.

For the New York Representative to be expelled, two-thirds of the full House needs to support the decision. If this pushes through, he will become only the sixth member in the nation's history to be expelled, said Fox News.

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