George Santos Leaves Congress in a Blaze of Glory

Representative George Santos, a New York Republican, left Congress with all the bravado and bluster that have become emblematic of the fabulist politician's relatively brief tenure in Washington, D.C.

Santos, the first openly gay non-incumbent Republican to be elected to Congress, won an upset 2022 victory in New York's 3rd District—which President Joe Biden had handily won by 8 percentage points just two years earlier. But his surprising and historic win was quickly overshadowed by a slew of scandals, as it was revealed that nearly every detail of the GOP lawmaker's backstory was exaggerated or entirely made up.

On Friday, with Santos facing a 23-count federal indictment and following the release of a scathing House Ethics Committee report, the legislative chamber voted 311 to 114 to expel the freshmen representative. Nearly all Democrats and 105 Republicans backed the successful effort, making the congressman only the sixth in United States history to be expelled from the House.

Newsweek reached out to Santos for comment following the expulsion vote.

Santos made sure that he did not go quietly, however. Last Friday, the GOP lawmaker did an X, formerly Twitter, spaces interview with podcast host Monica Matthews, slamming his colleagues. He described members of Congress as "felons" and suggested it's normal for lawmakers to have affairs and hook up with lobbyists.

"Within the ranks of the United States Congress, there's felons galore, there's people with all sorts of sheisty backgrounds, and all of a sudden, George Santos is the Mary Magdalene of the United States Congress. I don't want to work with a bunch of hypocrites," the Republican said.

"It's gross. I have colleagues who are more worried about getting drunk every night with the next lobbyists that they're going to screw and pretend like none of us know what's going on and sell off the American people," he said.

Then, on Thursday morning, Santos announced a long-shot effort to try and oust his Democratic colleague Representative Jamaal Bowman of New York's 16th District. Bowman has received significant criticism from Republicans for setting off a fire alarm just ahead of a critical September vote. The Democrat pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, agreeing to pay a $1,000 fine and write an apology letter to U.S. Capitol Police.

"The reality of it is it's all theater. It's theater for the cameras, it's theater for the microphones, it's theater for the American people at the expense of the American people, because no real work's getting done," Santos said during a Thursday press conference.

Santos has been accused of fabricating many of the details of his life, in addition to defrauding campaign donors and misusing campaign funds. The now-former congressman has lied about his work history, what schools he attended, his ancestry and the details about how his mother died. In one particularly unusual fabrication, he falsely claimed that he played college volleyball. A former boyfriend also alleged that he stole his phone along with clothing items.

Shortly after Santos' fabrications were reported, New York Republicans distanced them from their freshman colleague and urged him to resign. The slew of GOP critics grew as criminal probes were launched and he was eventually indicted as former campaign aides pleaded guilty to fraud. Then in late November, the House Ethics Committee released a blistering report after a 10-month investigation.

The committee's evidence showed that Santos used his campaign funds for personal use, engaged in "fraudulent conduct" and filed "false or incomplete reports" to the Federal Election Commission while running for office in 2022. Some of his more eye-catching expenses were allegedly for Botox and OnlyFans.

"The months-long Ethics Committee investigation and report was too damning to ignore any longer. Though they may have thought Santos didn't deserve to keep his seat, many of his Republican colleagues were reluctant to expel him without an official investigation into his wrongdoing," Casey Burgat, an assistant professor and Legislative Affairs Program Director at George Washington University, told Newsweek on Friday after the vote to expel Santos.

"Enough Republican members felt that Santos received sufficient due process to merit the expulsion vote," he said.

Although Santos has said he "exaggerated" some of his backstory, he maintains his innocence. He also has doubled down on many of his fabrications, suggesting that his statements have been misrepresented in the media.

Some Republicans pushed back against the effort to expel Santos, saying it went against precedent as he had not been convicted.

"And the fact that the Ethics Committee has done this incredible violation of precedent will do grave damage to this institution for many years to come because now there is no requirement of any conviction," Representative Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, said in a House floor speech on Thursday.

Whether Santos will ultimately be convicted of a crime remains to be seen.

"The DOJ will have to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Santos committed the crimes he is charged with," Jessica Tillipman, associate dean for Government Procurement Law at George Washington University, told Newsweek.

"The Congressional process is legislative [and] political in nature and is not subject to the same burden of proof," she said.

For now, Santos' critics are just happy he's out of Congress.

"George Santos's pattern of unethical and illegal conduct is shocking and continues to escalate. Expulsion from Congress was appropriate and overdue. He should have resigned and saved Congress all this trouble," Noah Bookbinder, the president of ethics watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told Newsweek in an emailed statement.