George Santos won’t run for reelection after ethics committee released report
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Rep. George Santos said he won’t run for reelection in a social media post on Thursday.
“I will continue on my mission to serve my constituents up until I am allowed,” Santos, R-N.Y., wrote on X, formerly called Twitter. “I will however NOT be seeking re-election for a second term in 2024 as my family deserves better than to be under the gun from the press all the time.”
His decision follows a 55-page report from a House ethics subcommittee, which includes two Republican and two Democratic members of Congress. According to the report, Santos spent campaign funds on Botox treatments and extravagant trips with his husband, among other things, as Politico noted.
“Rep. Santos sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit,” the report says.
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The Investigative Subcommittee recommended the Committee of Ethics should release the findings to the Justice Department, including evidence that he knowingly let his campaign file false reports with the Federal Election Commission, used the campaign funds for personal expenses, and violated the Ethics in Government Act, the report concluded.
The report also advised the committee to “adopt this report, and publicly condemn.”
Santos pleaded not guilty on Oct. 27. At the time, he said he wouldn’t be clearing out his office or resigning and that he was “entitled to a due process,” in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The New York representative’s lawyer, Joseph Murray, said the committee’s report “was a disgusting hit piece that really shows how low our federal government has sunk to and how we the people desperately need an Article V constitutional Convention,” in a statement obtained by CBS News.
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The Investigative Subcommittee’s report comes two days after Santos’ campaign fundraiser, Sam Miele, pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud charges on Tuesday as part of a plea agreement, as CNN reported.
Miele had previously been charged with identity theft as well, which he did not plead guilty to as part of the agreement. Initially, Miele pleaded not guilty to both the charges and was released on bail before entering into the agreement.
The ex-treasurer, Nancy Marks, has also pleaded guilty to a fraud conspiracy charge and implicated the indicted Santos in a scheme to embellish his campaign finance reports with a fake loan and fake donors, as the Deseret News previously reported.
