(CNN) — The US House of Representatives voted, on Friday, to expel Republican Representative George Santos, a historic vote that makes the New York congressman the sixth lawmaker to be expelled from the chamber.
The New York congressman has survived previous attempts to remove him from office, but there was growing momentum for this latest effort after the House Ethics Committee released a long-awaited report in November, which concluded that Santos “sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his policy.” “. He ran for the House of Representatives for his personal financial benefit.”
Several Republicans who had not previously supported expelling Santos said they would vote to expel him as a result of the ethics committee’s findings, although it was not clear before the vote whether there would be enough support to expel the congressman.
Expulsion is the harshest form of punishment imposed on a member of the House of Representatives. It is extremely rare and requires a two-thirds majority, which is very high, to succeed. Only five members of Congress have been expelled in history.
Republican Rep. Mark Molinaro of New York said House Speaker Mike Johnson informed the House Republican Conference on Friday morning that he would vote against the measure to oust Santos and encouraged members to vote according to their desired district.
Santos announced that he would not seek re-election after the Ethics Commission report was published, but he refused to resign and denounced the investigation as a “disgusting politicized smear.”
News under development…
:quality(85)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/53RFOA42FX7KAGGMIMASNRUUCM.jpg)
