Congress has found that Republican Rep. George Santos used campaign funds and donations to fund a lavish lifestyle, committed fraud, filed false election reports and “willfully” violated ethics.
The explosive findings of the House Ethics Committee’s long-awaited report released Thursday show that the “Long Island Liar” stole from his campaign and spent thousands on handbags, designer items, Botox, vacations, OnlyFans and Sephora makeup.
Committee members voted unanimously to refer Santos to the Justice Department for possible further prosecution.
The panel concluded that there was “substantial evidence” that the Republican lawmaker – who embellished nearly his entire resume – blatantly violated ethics and “attempted to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his candidacy for the House of Representatives for his personal financial gain.” to exploit”.
Congress has found that Republican Rep. George Santos used campaign funds and donations to fund a lavish lifestyle, committed fraud, filed false election reports and “willfully” violated ethics
The shocking report prompted Republican Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest to file a new motion to expel Santos after a vote failed last month.
Santos responded by announcing Thursday morning that he would not run for Congress again in 2024. He criticized the “biased” report and accused the ethics committee of “going to extraordinary lengths to denigrate me and my legal team.”
The bipartisan group stated in its report:
“Rep. Santos attempted to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his candidacy for the House of Representatives for his personal financial gain.”
He obviously stole from his campaign.
He deceived donors into believing they were making contributions to his campaign when in reality they were payments for his personal benefit.”
After last month’s failed attempt to expel Santos from the House of Representatives, Republican Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest will file a new resolution to expel Santos. A vote on it would take place after Thanksgiving.
The report also said that the congressman reported fake loans to his political committees, so donors and party committees wanted to make further donations to him.
The report did not recommend whether the House should take action to expel Santos, R.N.Y.
The report notes that Santos deceived people into donating to RedStone Strategies, which was added to a committee supporting his candidacy in 2022, and then transferred those funds to his personal account by depositing the money at Sephora, OnlyFans and a $4,000 -Dollar shopping at Hermes used .
It also emerged that he had spent campaign funds on Botox treatments and lavish trips to Atlantic City with his husband.
“Representative Santos continues to violate his legal financial disclosure obligations and has failed to correct countless errors and omissions,” the committee said, despite being asked to do so.
“The ISC [investigative subcommittee] also found that Rep. Santos was a knowing and active participant in the misconduct, despite his attempts to blame others for much of the misconduct. Particularly concerning was Representative Santos’ lack of openness during the investigation itself.”
Separately, Santos pleaded not guilty in federal court to 23 counts, including identity theft, charging his donors’ credit cards without their consent and submitting false campaign reports.
He is not expected to go on trial until next September.
A $1,500 charge and a $1,400 charge on his campaign debit card that were not filed with the FEC were listed as “Botox,” a former Santos staffer told the committee that the then-candidate once took him to a Botox appointment that was shortly before a campaign event.
Another $2,300 was spent at resorts in Atlantic City on July 24 and 25, 2022, and no campaign purpose could be identified, but an associate recalled: “Santos told him that he liked to visit casinos to play roulette , often with his husband.”
Another Airbnb expense of $3,300 was reported as a “hotel stay” on July 7, 2022 – a weekend calendar for Santos had him “spending the weekend at Hampton’s.”
The report points to another transfer of $20,000 from the campaign to Santos’ company Devolder, whose account had a negative balance at the time. From there, the money was used to make $6,000 worth of purchases at Ferragamo, withdraw $800 in cash at a casino, withdraw another $1,000 in cash near Santos’ apartment, and his rent to pay.
According to the report, Santos also received repayments to his personal account for money he never borrowed for the campaign.
He inflated the amount of more than six personal loans he made to the campaign – which in reality totaled $3,500 but which he had claimed would amount to as much as $80,000.
When he announced that he would not run again but would remain in Congress until the end of his term, Santos wrote on
Earlier this month, the House of Representatives voted resoundingly against expelling the congressman: 213 voted against Santos’ expulsion, 179 voted in favor, and 19 voted “present.”
Several members had indicated they wanted to wait for the ethics report before voting to expel him, and they are expected to change their vote in favor of expulsion after Thursday.
“That’s why we called for his resignation, voted for his expulsion and still believe he must be removed from Congress,” Rep. Marc Molinaro, R-N.Y., one of the leading members of the latest expulsion effort, told DailyMail. com in a statement.
“I commend the Ethics Committee for its thorough work and trust that this report will help my colleagues reach the same conclusions I reached months ago.”
And while Santos often bragged about being wealthy, in reality he was “frequently in debt, had abysmal credit, and relied on an ever-growing portfolio of high-interest credit cards to fund his luxury spending habits.”
The report added: “Rep. Santos does not appear to have owned a Maserati at any time, despite telling campaign staff otherwise.”
The inflated loans misled donors about how broke his campaign actually was, and a former staffer told the committee that they went eight months without pay.
Santos has often blamed spending missteps on his staff, including his former campaign treasurer Nancy Marks, who recently pleaded guilty to wire fraud and other crimes. However, throughout the report it is repeatedly noted that Santos was “heavily involved in his campaign’s financial operations.”
This is a groundbreaking story. Please check back for updates.