U.S. House expels George Santos from Congress after damning ethics report
The U.S. House voted on Friday to expel Republican Rep. George Santos of New York after a blistering ethics report on his conduct heightened lawmakers’ concerns about the scandal-plagued freshman. Santos became just the sixth member in the chamber’s history to be ousted by colleagues, and the third since the Civil War.
The vote to expel was 311-114, easily clearing the two-thirds majority required. House Republican leaders opposed removing Santos, whose departure leaves them with a razor-thin majority, but in the end 105 GOP lawmakers sided with nearly all Democrats to expel him.
The expulsion marked the final congressional chapter in a spectacular fall from grace for Santos. Celebrated as an up-and-comer after he flipped a district from Democrats last year, Santos’ life story began to unravel before he was even sworn into office. Reports emerged that he had lied about having Jewish ancestry, a career at top Wall Street firms and a college degree, among other things.
Then, in May, Santos was indicted by federal prosecutors on multiple charges, turning his presence in the House into a growing distraction and embarrassment to the party.
Santos joins a short list of lawmakers expelled from the House, and for reasons uniquely his own. Of the previous expulsions in the House, three were for siding with the Confederacy during the Civil War. The remaining two occurred after the lawmakers were convicted of crimes in federal court, the most recent in 2002.
Seeking to remain in office, Santos had appealed to colleagues to let the court process play out. He warned of the precedent they would set by expelling a member not yet convicted of a crime.
“This will haunt them in the future,” Santos told lawmakers on Thursday evening as they debated his removal.
As it became clear Friday that he would be expelled, Santos appeared resigned to his fate. He placed his overcoat over his shoulders and shook hands with conservative members who voted against his expulsion. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who voted against expelling Santos, was solemn as he announced the result of the vote and declared the New York seat vacant.
Outside the Capitol, trailed by a crush of reporters and cameras, he quickly ducked inside a vehicle and left.
Santos’ fellow Republicans from New York were front and center in the effort to boot him. Among them were fellow freshmen who serve in key swing districts and had helped the GOP take the House majority. They sought to generate as much political distance as they could from Santos, whose lies about his past made him a pariah in the House before he even took the oath of office.
Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, whose district is next to Santos’, led the debate for expulsion and argued that voters would welcome lawmakers holding themselves to a high standard. Another New York Republican, Rep. Nick Langworthy, said Santos had only himself to blame.
“Every precedent under the sun has been broken by George Santos,” Langworthy said. “Has there ever been anyone here that’s made up a whole life?”
Santos had survived two previous expulsion attempts, but a scathing House Ethics Committee report released the week before the Thanksgiving holiday appeared to turn colleagues decisively against him.
After eight months of work, Ethics Committee investigators said they had found “overwhelming evidence” that Santos had broken the law and exploited his public position for his own profit.
“It’s a solemn day,” said the chairman of the ethics panel, Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss. “I mean no one wants to have to remove a member from Congress. But the allegations against him, the evidence was overwhelming.”
Rep. Susan Wild, the top Democrat on the Ethics Committee, reminded members that the decision approving the investigators’ findings was unanimous.
“Mr. Santos is not a victim,” Wild said. “He is a perpetrator of a massive fraud on his constituents and the American people.”
Paraguay official sacked after signing agreement
with fictitious country
A senior Paraguayan official was fired this week after signing a cooperation memorandum with a country he has since learned does not exist.
Arnaldo Chamorro told reporters Thursday he was dismissed from his job as chief of staff to the agriculture minister after signing the document with purported officials from the "United States of Kailasa" -- presented to him as a South American island.
"They (the 'officials') came and expressed a wish to help Paraguay. They presented several projects, we listened to them and that was that," he said, admitting to having been fooled.
He was dismissed on Wednesday.
Chamorro said the fake officials also met his minister Carlos Gimenez.
Their motive was not known.
The memorandum signed by the two parties had envisaged the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two "countries."
In the document, complete with the ministry's letterhead and official seal, Chamorro salutes "the honorable Nithyananda Paramashivam, sovereign of the United States of Kailasa" and praises his "contributions to Hinduism, humanity and the Republic of Paraguay."
The memorandum further recommends that the "government of Paraguay actively explore the establishment of diplomatic relations with the United States of Kailasa and supports its admission as a sovereign state to various international organizations, including the United Nations."
Paraguayan media reported that "Paramashivam" was in reality an Indian citizen wanted for crimes committed in his country.
The agriculture ministry in a statement lamented "procedural errors" committed and said the memorandum "cannot be considered official" nor confer any obligations on the state of Paraguay.
(AFP)
