George Santos survives second attempt to expel him from Congress

WASHINGTON — Rep. George Santos survived a vote to expel him from Congress Wednesday despite the move to oust him by his fellow Long Island Republicans who cited his admitted fabrications and the 23-count federal criminal indictment against him.

The motion failed 179 yeas to 213 nays, falling well short of the two-thirds vote of those present and voting. A total of 155 Democrats and 24 Republicans voted to make him only the sixth member to ever be expelled from the U.S. House. But 182 Republicans and 31 Democrats voted against the motion, 19 voted present and 22 did not vote.

The expulsion motion’s defeat means the embattled 35-year-old first-term Santos, who has dodged two expulsion attempts, will remain in the House for the time being and possibly until after his Sept. 9 federal trial ends.

The vote came after the House Ethics Committee announced Tuesday that it will release a report by Nov. 17 on its next steps in its investigation into Santos and after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) expressed reluctance about expelling him.

And it came after Johnson said in an appearance on Fox News he worried about Republicans’ narrow majority of only four votes that could shrink in the future and about disturbing Santos’ right to due process to defend himself in court.

On social media, Santos crowed about avoiding expulsion, posting on X a photo of himself wearing a golden crown, with the House chamber in the background and the words: “If you come at me, you best not miss.”

Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-Island Park), the expulsion motion sponsor, and Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville), a co-sponsor, said after the motion failed that some of the members voting no might be waiting to see the ethics committee report.

"We expect the ethics committee report due in a couple of weeks to enlighten some of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle," LaLota said. "We expect a lot of those folks to change after the ethics committee report is unveiled."

Before the vote, a debate on the expulsion took place in a nearly empty House chamber, with D’Esposito, LaLota and Rep. Mike Lawler (R-Pearl River) at one desk arguing for his ouster, Santos sitting alone at another and Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-Manhattan) across the aisle. Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport) sat away from the table and took no part in the debate.

The expulsion sponsors stressed Santos' lies about his background — especially falsely claiming he is Jewish and his mother died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attack on the World Trade Center — to appeal to the 3rd District’s voters, and now being incapable of getting a bill passed or a project funded.

House Republicans in May derailed a Democrat-led effort to force a vote to expel Santos, a week after he was indicted on 13 federal criminal charges related to his personal and campaign finances.

On Wednesday, Goldman questioned why Republicans didn’t back the Democratic motion and asked what had changed from then to now. 

D’Esposito cited two changes: Santos’ former campaign treasurer pleaded guilty to falsifying campaign finance reports, including a $500,000 loan debt, just weeks ago, and on Oct. 10 federal prosecutors charged Santos with an additional 10 criminal offenses.

When Santos rose to defend himself, he accused the resolution sponsors of acting as “judge, jury and executioner.” He also said that “now is not the time to set a dangerous precedent” by expelling him before he has a chance to defend himself at trial.

But LaLota argued it is time for a new precedent, saying “if a candidate for Congress makes his entire life up in order to defraud voters” and succeeds, the House should “expel the fraudster.”

Before the vote, D’Esposito said he might offer another motion to expel Santos.

“In two weeks, we will read the ethics report. And, you know, you don't need to be a retired New York City detective to understand that report is probably not going to be that good,” D’Esposito said. “And we'll go from there.”

Santos has denied wrongdoing, pleaded not guilty to all 23 federal charges and vowed to fight the indictment in court. “I want to fight to defend myself,” Santos told Newsday last week. “I’m entitled to due process.”

Only five members of Congress have been expelled from the U.S. House and only two for criminal convictions. The first three lost their seats in 1861 over their support for the Confederate rebellion as the Civil War began.

More recently, the House voted to expel Rep. Michael Myers (D-Pa.) in 1980 for his bribery conviction in the Abscam scandal — a sting operation in which FBI agents posed as Middle East oil dealers offering bribes — and Rep. James Traficant (D-Ohio) in 2002 for his conviction on bribery, corruption, tax evasion, racketeering and six other federal charges.