Congress has found Republican Rep. George Santos used campaign money and donations to fund a lavish lifestyle, engaged in fraud, filed false election reports and ‘willfully’ violated ethics.
Bombshell findings of the long-awaited House Ethics Committee report released on Thursday show the so-called ‘Long Island Liar’ stole from his campaign and spent thousands on handbags, designer goods, Botox, vacations, OnlyFans, and Sephora makeup.
Lawmakers on the committee unanimously voted to refer Santos to the Justice Department for possible further prosecution.
The panel concluded there was ‘substantial evidence’ that the GOP lawmaker – who embellished almost all of his resume – blatantly violated ethics and ‘sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit.’
The staggering report prompted Republican Ethics Committee Chair Michael Guest to file a new motion to expel Santos, after a vote last month failed. A vote on the new resolution would take place after Thanksgiving.
Santos responded by announcing on Thursday morning that he would not be running again for Congress in 2024. He tore into the ‘biased’ report and accused the Ethics Committee of going to ‘extraordinary lengths to smear myself and my legal team.’
The bipartisan committed stated in its report: ‘Representative Santos sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit. He blatantly stole from his campaign.
‘He deceived donors into providing what they thought were contributions to his campaign but were in fact payments for his personal benefit.’
The stunning dossier also states that the congressman reported fake loans to his political committees so that donors and party committees would want to make further contributions to him.
It found that Santos deceived people into donating to RedStone Strategies, which in 2022 was listed as a committee dedicated to supporting his candidacy, and then transferred those funds to his personal account, using the money on Sephora, OnlyFans, and a $4,000 purchase at Hermes.
It also found he spent campaign funds on Botox treatments and lavish Atlantic City trips with his husband.
‘Representative Santos continues to flout his statutory financial disclosure obligations and has failed to correct countless errors and omission,’ the committee, said.
‘Despite his attempts to blame others for much of the misconduct, Representative Santos was a knowing and active participant in the wrongdoing. Particularly troubling was Representative Santos’ lack of candor during the investigation itself.’
Separately, Santos has already pleaded not guilty to 23 charges in federal court, including identity theft, charging his donors’ credit cards without their approval and submitting false campaign reports.
He is not expected to face a trial until next September.
The Ethics Committee said two charges of $1,500 and one $1,400 on the congressman’s campaign debit card, which were not submitted to the FEC, were listed as ‘Botox’.
A former Santos staffer told the committee the then-candidate once brought him to a Botox appointment that was near a campaign event.
Another $2,300 was spent at resorts in Atlantic City over July 24 and 25, 2022 and no campaign purpose could be identified.
One staffer recalled ‘Santos told him that he enjoyed visiting casinos to play roulette, often with his husband,’ the committee said.
Another $3,300 Airbnb expense was reported as a ‘hotel stay’ on July 7, 2022 – a weekend Santos’ calendar had him ‘off at Hamptons for the weekend.’
Ethics report key takeaways:
- House Ethics Committee found Santos ‘sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit’
- Says the Long Island lawmaker was a ‘willing participant’ in a ‘complex web of unlawful activity’
- Santos spent thousands in campaign funds on Botox treatments and trips to Atlantic City with his husband
- The Republican used $3,000 in campaign funds for an Airbnb in the Hamptons
- Transfer to his business was used on $6,000 of luxury Ferragamo goods, to pay his rent and for $800 at a casino
- Santos made a purchase on his campaign debit card note as ‘Botox’
- Santos told his campaign staff he had a Maserati despite no evidence he ever owned one
- Inflated six personal loans to his campaign. He claimed they were worth $80,000 when they only amounted to $3,500
- Santos has pleaded not guilty to 23 charges in federal court, including identity theft, charging donor’s credit cards without authorization and submitting false campaign finance reports
The report notes another $20,000 transfer from the campaign to Santos’ company Devolder, whose account had a negative balance at the time. From there, money was used to make $6,000 worth of purchases at Ferragamo, withdraw $800 in cash at a casino, withdraw another $1,000 in cash near Santos’ apartment, and to pay his rent.
The report found Santos also received repayments to his personal account for money he had never loaned to the campaign.
He inflated over six personal loans he made to the campaign – which in reality totaled $3,500 but he had claimed would total as much as $80,000.
In announcing he would not run again but would remain in Congress through the end of his term, Santos posted on X: ‘My family deserves better than to be under the gun from the press all the time.’
Earlier this month the House voted handily against kicking out the congressman: 213 against Santos’ expulsion, 179 in favor and 19 voting ‘present.’
A number of members had insinuated they wanted to wait for the Ethics Committee report before voting to expel him and are expected to change their vote in favor of expulsion after Thursday.
‘This is why we called for his resignation, voted for his expulsion and still believe he needs to be removed from Congress,’ Rep. Marc Molinaro, R-N.Y., one of the lead members on the last expulsion effort, told DailyMail.com in a statement.
‘I commend the Ethics Committee for their thorough work and trust this report will help my colleagues come to the same conclusion I did months ago.’
While Santos often boasted of being wealthy, in reality he ‘was frequently in debt, had an abysmal credit score, and relied on an ever-growing wallet of high-interest credit cards to fund his luxury spending habits,’ the report said.
It added: ‘At no point does Representative Santos appear to have owned a Maserati, despite telling campaign staff otherwise.’
The inflated loans deceived donors about how broke his campaign really was, and one former staffer told the committee they went eight months without pay.
Santos has often blamed his staff, including his former campaign treasurer Nancy Marks who recently pleaded guilty to wire fraud and other crimes, for the spending missteps. But a repeating message throughout the report is Santos was ‘highly involved in his campaign’s financial operations.’
The report also found Santos did not offer ‘100 percent compliance’ as he had promised.
‘Santos’ claim that he would cooperate with the investigation was just another falsehood,’ the report stated.
It said he offered few documents and dragged out the process of responding to the committee.
When he did offer information, it was found to be riddled with falsehoods, the report said.
The committee had also investigated, but was unable to substantiate, allegations of sexual harassment from a prospective employee.
It found that Santos was far more responsive in defending himself against those allegations.
The panel said he offered a ‘robust response to the sexual misconduct allegations’ and suggested his compliance with their work ‘turned on whether he believed doing so was in his personal interest, rather than fulfilling his duty to cooperate.’
