The Sun (San Bernardino)

House Ethics Committee begins to scrutinize Rep. Santos

- By Michael Gold and Grace Ashford

WASHINGTON » The House Ethics Committee announced Thursday that it had opened a broad investigat­ion into Rep. George Santos, the embattled Republican from New York under scrutiny for lies about his background and questions about his campaign finances.

The inquiry will cover several areas where Santos has been accused of misconduct in formal complaints, including one filed by two of his colleagues. The committee's top-ranking Republican and Democratic members said in a statement that they would seek to determine whether Santos had failed to properly fill out his House financial disclosure forms, violated federal conflict of interest laws or engaged in other unlawful activity during his 2022 congressio­nal campaign.

The committee also will examine an allegation of sexual misconduct from a prospectiv­e congressio­nal aide who briefly worked in Santos' office.

Santos said on Twitter that he was “fully cooperatin­g” with the committee's investigat­ion and would not comment further.

The Ethics Committee is not known for aggressive­ly pursuing inquiries. Critics often argue that the body moves too slowly and has few options to punish lawmakers for misdeeds. Although scores of representa­tives supported an inquiry into Santos, it took two months for the committee to start one.

Sitting representa­tives also are disincline­d to penalize their colleagues. Though the committee can in rare instances recommend a representa­tive be removed from office, it largely hands out fines or issues rebukes. Its principal tool is to release reports that may create pressure for action by the en

tire House against sitting members of Congress.

The committee’s investigat­ion nonetheles­s adds to the mounting legal and political pressure that Santos has faced in the wake of reporting by The New York Times that revealed he had fabricated much of his life story. Subsequent reporting showed serious irregulari­ties in his campaign finances, including $365,000 in unexplaine­d spending.

Federal and local prosecutor­s are investigat­ing whether Santos committed any crimes involving his lies about his background, an animal-rescue charity he ran and his finances. The Federal Election Commission has been examining irregulari­ties in his campaign fundraisin­g and spending, and prosecutor­s in Brazil revived fraud charges against Santos tied to an incident in 2008 involving a stolen checkbook.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has for months pinned Santos’ fate in Congress on the Ethics Committee’s findings. But the timeline for the committee’s inquiry remains unclear and it typically defers to law enforcemen­t agencies when its investigat­ions overlap with theirs, a practice that may impede the House investigat­ion.

In the two months since Santos first took office, at least 10 of his House Republican colleagues and a plethora of local Republican officials in New York have urged him to step aside. A poll conducted by Newsday and Siena College in January found that voters in Santos’ district overwhelmi­ngly thought he should resign, including 71% of Republican­s surveyed.

Among Santos’ harshest critics in Congress are fellow first-term Republican lawmakers from New York. In a statement Thursday, Rep. Mike Lawler, who represents part of the Hudson Valley, said he welcomed a “swift and thorough” review from the Ethics Committee, which he said was “long overdue.”

Rep. Nick LaLota, a Republican who represents a neighborin­g district on Long Island, said on Twitter on Wednesday night that Santos was “a terrible person and should be thrown out” of Congress as soon as possible.

Thus far, Santos has faced little consequenc­e in Congress besides being ostracized by many Republican­s, though last month he temporaril­y removed himself from two congressio­nal committees at the direction of House leadership.

The Ethics Committee’s inquiry began Tuesday when the 10-member body, split evenly between Republican­s and Democrats, voted unanimousl­y to create an investigat­ive subcommitt­ee to scrutinize Santos.

The subcommitt­ee has four members — two Democrats and two Republican­s — and is being led by Rep. David Joyce, R-Ohio. Its top Democratic member is Rep. Susan Wild of Pennsylvan­ia, the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Ethics Committee.

Two Democratic lawmakers from New York, Reps. Daniel Goldman and Ritchie Torres, first requested an ethics investigat­ion of Santos in January, focusing largely on whether he broke the law when he filed required financial disclosure­s late and with key details missing.

“Mr. Santos has failed to uphold the integrity expected of members of the House of Representa­tives,” they wrote.

According to his candidate disclosure­s, Santos went from earning $55,000 to more than $750,000, plus dividends of more than $1 million, during the time he was running for office. Most of this wealth came from his company, the Devolder Organizati­on, according to disclosure­s.

Santos has said that he made his money by helping “high net-worth individual­s” make deals, citing sales of yachts and planes.

“If you’re looking at a $20 million yacht, my referral fee there can be anywhere between $200,000 and $400,000,” he told the outlet Semafor in December.

But Santos failed to identify any of his clients on candidate disclosure forms, a seeming violation of the rule meant to guard against conflicts of interest that requires candidates to disclose anytime a single source pays them more than $5,000.

The Times also identified numerous irregulari­ties in the way his campaign raised and spent money, including rental payments to a house Santos was known to have stayed at, and the existence of a fund called RedStone Strategies that hit up donors for tens of thousands of dollars and shared an address with his campaign and business.

A number of Santos’ Republican colleagues said that the reporting on Santos raised serious concerns. In the months since, other outside groups have filed complaints with the committee.

Last month, Derek Myers, a prospectiv­e congressio­nal aide who said he worked briefly in Santos’ office before his job offer was rescinded, also asked the committee to investigat­e whether Santos committed ethical violations, and he accused the congressma­n of sexual harassment.

Myers, whose account could not be corroborat­ed, said in a statement that he would disclose more evidence to the committee if he was called upon to do so, saying, “I have faith in the evidence and the facts.”

Though Santos has admitted to lying about certain aspects of his background, including falsely claiming he graduated from college and worked for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, he has denied any criminal misconduct.

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 ?? ANDREW HARNIK — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., leaves a House GOP conference meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 25.
ANDREW HARNIK — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., leaves a House GOP conference meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 25.

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