New ethics complaint: George Santos 'failed to uphold the integrity' of the House

WASHINGTON — Two New York Democratic congressmen asked the House Ethics Committee on Tuesday to investigate Rep. George Santos for failure to file timely and accurate financial disclosure reports about his income, bank accounts and real estate holdings.

Reps. Daniel Goldman of Brooklyn and Ritchie Torres of the Bronx hand-delivered a copy of their six-page complaint to Santos’ office, where an aide accepted it for the beleaguered congressman, who already faces local, state and federal probes into his fabrications and finances.

"Mr. Santos has failed to uphold the integrity expected of members of the House of Representatives," they said in their filing.

Acknowledging other inquiries, Goldman said, “This investigation, though, it calls on the House to police its own because if we are to have credibility, if we are to have integrity, and if this body is to gain the trust of the American people, then we need to assure that its members are following ethics rules of this body.”  

Santos later entered an elevator without commenting in response to questions about the filing to the House Ethics Committee, which is located one floor below his office.

The request by Goldman, a former prosecutor and Trump impeachment counsel, and Torres stands as the latest in a barrage of complaints filed against Santos in his first few days in office, most of them about his campaign fundraising and spending and financial disclosures.

Outside ethics groups, however, warned that requests for investigations to the Ethics Committee, overseen by eight House members evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, often result in lengthy deliberations and in little or no punishment.

The last time the House expelled a member came in 2002 and the last time it censured a member was in 2010.  

Those ethics groups and Democrats said the more potent Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent House entity created to review misconduct allegations and refer its investigations to the House Ethics Committee, had been weakened by House rules passed Monday.

The rules remove three Democrats on the office’s board of four Democrats and four Republicans, hampering any investigations until they are replaced, in part because the board must approve any probes before they begin.

That delay would affect the only complaint about Santos to the Office of Congressional Ethics by the liberal advocacy group End Citizens United.  

It filed a complaint against Santos Monday for allegedly soliciting campaign contributions for a round trip from New York to Washington for his swearing-in and other activities, a violation of the U.S. Federal Code and House Ethics rules.

Members of both parties in New York have condemned Santos.  

Rep. Pat Ryan (D-Gardiner) tweeted, “George Santos can not be trusted with access to classified information.”

Nassau County Republican Committee chairman Joseph Cairo announced that he and other Nassau Republican elected officials on Wednesday will “deliver their strongest statement yet” on the “disgraced” Santos.

“Santos’ despicable lies and mistruths have offended countless Long Islanders, and he will have to answer for his horrific deceptions,” said Matt Capp, a spokesman for Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-Island Park).

Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville) said, “New Yorkers deserve the truth and someone who is a total fraud deserves harsh consequences. I expect that the House Ethics Committee is one place where both can be delivered.”

And Kristen Cianci, spokeswoman for Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport) said, “As a member of the Ethics Subcommittee on Investigations Member Pool, Congressman Garbarino could be called upon to participate in potential future congressional investigations of the matter and is therefore unable to comment at this time.” 

The filing by Goodman and Torres to the Ethics Committee said Santos violated the Ethics in Government Act by failing to file financial disclosure reports within 30 days of becoming a candidate and 30 days before the 2022 primary election.  

Records show Santos did neither.

“Mr. Santos failed to file a single disclosure report prior to the Republican primary for the NY-3 congressional seat on August 23, 2022, not withstanding his status as a candidate for 19 months prior,” the filing said.

“As this committee well knows, financial disclosures are essential to enforce compliance with the law as well as to ensure voters have access to relevant information about candidates,” the filing added.

Goldman and Torres questioned the validity of Santos’ tardy financial disclosure statement, noting he claimed he owned an apartment in Brazil worth $500,000 to $1 million but later told reporters that he owns no property. And they doubted his reports that his income soared from $55,000 in 2020 to $750,000 in 2022.

“That is an astronomical growth in his wealth that is so implausible, so inexplicable that it requires a willful suspension of disbelief, and it warrants an investigation,” Torres said. “He claims to have earned millions of dollars from clients yet none of those clients were disclosed on his congressional disclosure as required by federal law.”