Rep. George Santos survived an expulsion vote in the US House of Representatives Wednesday amid due process concerns with his ongoing criminal charges.
The U.S. Constitution Art. 1 Sec. 5 Cl. 2, requires “the Concurrence of two thirds, [of a House to] expel a member.” The resolution to expel Santos alleges that Santos “engaged in serious financial fraud throughout his 2022 campaign for the House of Representatives,” that Santos “stole over $44,000 from donors by charging their credit cards” and that Santos’ former treasurer “plead[ed] guilty to falsifying campaign finance reports” among several other allegations.
The resolution calling for Santos’ expulsion received 179 votes for the resolution and 213 against. The vote was largely on partisan lines. Santos remarked on the House floor that “it is unconscionable to think that [the House of Representatives], which is at war with the DOJ over their politically motivated practices, would blindly accept their accusation against a member of another branch of government” and “let us remember our commitment to justice ensures that the presumption of innocence is upheld in all cases.”
The resolution was sponsored by Rep Anthony D’Esposito, who, like Santos, is a Republican from Long Island, NY. D’Esposito remarked after Santos’ defense on the floor that “constitutional due process doesn’t apply here.”
Democrats who voted against expelling Santos, such as Jamie Raskin, justified their vote on the basis of due process. Raskin stated that:
The House has expelled five people in our history, three for joining the Confederacy as traitors to the Union and two after they were convicted of serious criminal offenses. Santos has not been criminally convicted yet of any of the offenses he has been indicted for that were cited in the Resolution nor has he been found guilty of ethics offenses in the House internal process.
Representative Katie Porter, another Democrat who voted against Santos’ expulsion said she does “believe it would be appropriate for [Santos] to resign” but “the gravity of expulsion demands due process—by the Ethics Committee, our courts, or another impartial fact finder” and ” [t]he House would set a dangerous precedent if we expelled a member without allowing one of these processes to conclude.”
