His escapades have ceased to amuse the American Congress: the elected Republican George Santos, who distinguished himself by his repeated lies and is accused of financial crimes, was dismissed by his peers on Friday by a vote of 311-114, or 21 votes more than the minimum two-thirds required.
About a hundred Republicans and more than 200 Democrats voted to oust the thirty-year-old. The House of Representatives has so far used such a sanction only five times in its history.
After his election in November 2022, and following revelations from the New York Times, George Santos had to admit to having lied about entire parts of his life to embellish his CV.
He had to admit that he had never worked for the major American banks Goldman Sachs or Citigroup, nor had a university degree from New York University (NYU). Elected from New York State, he was also charged with defrauding his donors as well as money laundering and electronic fraud. He pleaded not guilty.
Botox and OnlyFans
The elected official, whose cheating was the talk of social networks, has long managed to overcome calls for resignation, launched upon his inauguration by elected officials from both sides.
Until the publication of a report from the ethics commission of the House of Representatives, accusing him of having “seriously discredited” the institution.
According to the commission, the elected official “sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his candidacy for his personal financial gain” and “consistently lied to his voters, his donors and his team about his past and his experience”.
According to the report, the elected official used the embezzled money for purchases in the luxury store Ferragamo, in a casino, for cosmetic treatments with “Botox” and on the OnlyFans platform, on which users can share their sexual videos and photos.
“I accepted my destiny”
George Santos reacted by describing this text as “political slander” while ensuring that he would not run for a new term in 2024. Also accused of having exaggerated reality by presenting himself as “an American proud to be Jewish”, or even as the grandson of Holocaust survivors who fled Nazi barbarity, he refused to resign.
Friday morning, however, the elected official seemed resigned. “I have accepted my destiny. If God’s will is to keep me here I will stay, if God’s will is for me to leave, I will leave,” he told Fox News on Friday morning a few hours before the vote.
He had been summoned by the chairman of the ethics committee of the House of Representatives with a Republican majority, Michael Guest, judging him “unworthy to serve as a member” of this institution. A previous motion to exclude was rejected because it did not receive the necessary two-thirds majority of votes from representatives present.
The last elected member of the House of Representatives excluded by his peers was a Democrat from Ohio, James Traficant, ousted in 2002 on the basis of ten charges, including that of corruption. The following week, he was sentenced to eight years in prison.