House ethics committee announces investigation into George Santos
The House ethics committee has opened an investigation into George Santos, the Republican lawmaker who admitted to lying about his résumé in his campaign to represent part of New York City’s suburbs in Congress’s lower chamber.
A bipartisan statement from the committee’s GOP chair, Michael Guest, and the Democratic ranking member, Susan Wild, said the panel voted to create a subcommittee to look into alleged misconduct by Santos.
They specified it would investigate “whether Representative George Santos may have: engaged in unlawful activity with respect to his 2022 congressional campaign; failed to properly disclose required information on statements filed with the House; violated federal conflict of interest laws in connection with his role in a firm providing fiduciary services; and/or engaged in sexual misconduct towards an individual seeking employment in his congressional office”.
Republican Dave Joyce will chair the subcommittee, alongside Democratic ranking member Susan Wild. They will be joined by Republican John Rutherford and Democrat Glenn Ivey.
Representatives for Santos did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Santos had already removed himself from his committee assignments but otherwise has refused calls from Republicans in New York to step down from office. “The committee notes that the mere fact of establishing an investigative subcommittee does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred,” the statement said.
On Tuesday Santos introduced his first bill, an attempt to reverse part of Donald Trump’s tax plan that limited how much homeowners could deduct in state and local property taxes, the New York Times reported.