The U.S. House expelled Republican George Santos in a historic 311-114 vote on Friday. An angry Santos vowed to take other lawmakers down with him.
Santos is only the 6th person to ever be expelled from the House of Representatives.
Last month, Santos was indicted on 10 additional federal charges, including identity theft, making unauthorized charges on donors’ credit cards and submitting false campaign reports.
In May, Santos pled not guilty to the original federal indictment. The new federal charges brings the total counts to 23 against Santos.
On Thursday, Santos conceded that he may be expelled from the House, but he refused to resign, “because if I leave, they win. If I leave, the bullies take place. This is bullying.”
Santos said he will not leave Congress quietly and he plans to take other lawmakers down with him.
He vowed to “name names” and blow the whistle on other members of Congress. He didn’t provide details, but he insisted it would be “enough to make your hair stand.”
“I will do the same thing members did to me and go to the Office of Congressional Ethics … and report everything that I think is relevant to the committee for them to look into,” he said.
Santos came under fire last year for lying about his sexual identity and religious heritage to win an election.
In November, Santos was narrowly elected to the U.S. House of Representatives to represent New York’s 3rd congressional district, which covers Long Island and Queens.
But it was soon discovered that Santos was a prolific liar. He claimed that he was openly gay and “married” to a man. However, public records showed Santos was previously married to a woman, whom he divorced in 2019 — a fact that he never mentioned on the campaign trail.
There is no public record that Santos was ever married to a man.
On his campaign website, Santos said his mother was “the first female executive at a major financial institution” and that she survived the September 11 attacks.
His mother, who died in 2016, was a domestic worker and home care nurse.
Santos also claimed to hold degrees from colleges that have no record of him being enrolled or graduating.
He also said that he worked as a Wall Street financier and investor for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. But neither company has any record of hiring him.
Santos claimed he was Jewish, despite genealogical records and other evidence that show Santos’ ancestors lived in Brazil for at least three generations.
