WASHINGTON (CN) — A monthslong congressional investigation into New York Representative George Santos found that the lawmaker stole funds from his campaign, deceived donors and lied to both constituents and federal regulators, the House Ethics Committee said in a report published Thursday.
Santos, elected in 2022 to represent New York’s 3rd Congressional District, “sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit,” the lower chamber’s ethics panel wrote.
Since his election, the New York Republican has been under intense scrutiny, both for claims that he lied about his background and work experience while running for office as well as accusations that he abused his campaign finances. The lawmaker faces two separate sets of criminal charges related to that conduct.
In February, Congress began investigating Santos amid claims that the congressman had, among other things, made false statements about campaign expenditures to the Federal Election Commission and sexually harassed a person applying to work in his congressional office.
Congressional investigators have reviewed more than 170,000 pages of documents and witness testimony, which they now say demonstrate how Santos knowingly participated in “a complex web of unlawful activity” despite his claims that he was not involved in any wrongdoing.
The Ethics Committee uncovered “significant campaign finance violations” by Santos while running for the House in 2022, but also during his unsuccessful 2020 bid for the same seat.
Santos falsely reported personal loans to the FEC, the report said, and also failed to disclose thousands of dollars in funding transfers between his personal holding companies and his campaign bank account, including undisclosed deposits from a New York state political committee run by the lawmaker.
The committee found that Santos had spent both campaign funds and donations on personal expenses. Parts of an unreported $20,000 transfer made in 2022 between Santos’ campaign account and his personal company was used to pay his rent, and roughly $6,000 was spent at high-end fashion retailer Ferragamo.
Working through a supposedly independent political committee supporting his election, Santos also collected around $50,000 from two campaign contributors, which was transferred directly to the lawmaker’s personal bank account, the report said. That cash was used for a roughly $5,000 purchase at luxury retailer Hermes, as well as smaller expenses at Sephora and the online adult platform OnlyFans.
Investigators “did not find evidence showing that the contributions received … were used to support Representative Santos’ candidacy.”
Santos had abused his campaign finances during the 2020 election as well, the report found, pointing to two purchases made on a campaign debit card totaling roughly $3,000 that were labeled “Botox” in expense sheets obtained by the committee.
Investigators also poured cold water on attempts by Santos to foist blame for campaign malfeasance on his former treasurer Nancy Marks, who pleaded guilty in October to a felony count of conspiracy.
The Ethics Committee pointed to correspondence between Santos and Marks about “discrepancies” in his campaign’s FEC filings, such as an $80,000 loan “which he knew to be fictitious.”
“Rather than exonerate Representative Santos,” the investigators wrote, “these materials only further underscored that Representative Santos was: highly involved in his campaign’s financial operations; focused on projecting large fundraising numbers on his FEC reports; and aware of issues relating to the campaign’s reporting.”
Despite being aware of all these problems, the report's authors wrote, Santos chose not to take any corrective steps, violating House ethics rules and federal law in the process.
Santos did not submit any response to the accusations against him and refused to be interviewed by the Ethics Committee, investigators said.
Although the Ethics Committee said that it had uncovered “substantial evidence” that Santos had violated federal laws, including those he is accused of breaking in his pending criminal charges, the panel resolved not to proceed with separate congressional charges against the lawmaker.
That decision, the committee reasoned, would prevent Congress from interfering with the Justice Department’s ongoing prosecution of Santos. The agency in March had requested that lawmakers defer their probe, but the committee reasoned that stopping the investigation would prevent the committee from exercising proper oversight on a member of Congress.
Investigators said that they shared the results of their report with the Justice Department.
Santos on Wednesday denounced the House report in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
"It is a disgusting politicized smear that shows the depths of how low our federal government has sunk," the congressman wrote. "Everyone who participated in this grave miscarriage of Justice should all be ashamed of themselves."
Santos announced that he would no longer be seeking reelection in 2024, a change of tune for the lawmaker who had previously rejected questions about his future in Congress.
Santos in October was indicted on 23 federal charges in the Eastern District of New York. Prosecutors said that the congressman falsified political contributions and that he had illegally used donors’ credit cards to make recurring payments to his campaign.
The congressman pleaded not guilty in May to a separate set of 13 criminal charges.
Distaste for Santos’ conduct has grown in recent months among his House colleagues, and even some Republicans. Despite that, when a group of House Republicans earlier this month attempted to have Santos expelled from Congress, lawmakers overwhelmingly voted against the measure.
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