House Ethics Committee punts decision to punish George Santos

After months of investigation, the House Ethics Committee will not recommend punishment against scandal-plagued Rep. George Santos (R-NY), ABC News reported on Wednesday.

"Instead, the panel will release its evidence and details of its work for members to review and make their own conclusion about whether Santos should be removed from Congress," the report stated.

"An investigative subcommittee has contacted at least 40 witnesses, reviewed 170,000 pages of documents and authorized more than three dozen subpoenas as part of its investigation into whether Santos 'engaged in unlawful activity' in his 2022 House campaign."

The committee isn't necessarily exonerating him, however, by not recommending a specific punishment. Rather, the reason is more procedural.

According to Chairman Michael Guest (R-MS), recommending a punishment would have required a "much longer process" and instead "the investigative subcommittee decided that they were going to compile the report, they would release the report ... to the members, into the public, and based upon that, then our members can take whatever action that they felt necessary."

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Santos, who was first elected in 2022, was immediately clouded by reports that he lied about almost every aspect of his personal background on the campaign trail, including his education and work history, and a fictional Jewish ancestry. Other even more outlandish allegations surfaced, including that he tried to bilk a disabled veteran out of crowdfunds for his dying service dog.

More seriously, federal authorities soon began investigating irregularities in his campaign finance, and he is now under federal indictment for wire fraud, benefits fraud, and false statements. Prosecutors allege that he stole unemployment benefits, used fraud to trick people into donating to his campaign, and even stole credit card information from donors for personal use.

Santos has denied all charges against him. Many of his fellow New York Republicans have called on him to resign and even introduced measures to expel him, but GOP leaders, facing an extremely narrow majority, have urged members to hold off until the investigation is complete.

Some New York Republicans are confident the facts laid out in the report will convince more members to expel him, even without an explicit recommendation to do so, with Rep. Nick LaLota, saying, "The substance in the report will drive other members to get to yes."