Republican US Rep. George Santos faces the House Ethics Committee. This was confirmed by Kevin McCarthy, chairman of the Chamber of Congress, to the US television channel CNN. If the panel finds evidence of possible misconduct, it could spell the end of Santos’ political career for the time being.
His party colleague McCarthy has not yet asked Santos to resign, but has always said that the voters should decide that. Now there are signs of a change in opinion. “If the committee finds anything, we will take action,” McCarthy said. Santos has already given up his two committee posts.
The FBI is now also investigating against him: the federal police are investigating allegations that Santos is said to have embezzled money. He is said to have collected donations online for a homeless Marine veteran’s sick service dog and then kept them. It is about 3000 dollars (almost 2800 euros).
Since it became known that the 34-year-old simply made up a lot of the information in his CV, he has been in the public eye. Among other things, he highlighted his experience on Wall Street, researched the New York Times according to but never worked at Goldman Sachs or Citigroup. The degree from an elite university was also fabricated, as was his alleged Jewish family history.
Santos was only elected to his first term in the House of Representatives in November. However, according to a survey, 78 percent of voters in his New York constituency now want him to resign. Should Santos vacate his seat, the Republicans could lose the more Democratic constituency in a by-election. That would make the extremely slim majority they hold in the House of Representatives even smaller.