The U.S. House of Representatives voted to expel Republican Rep. George Santos from New York State on Dec. 1 after a moral report on his actions intensified lawmakers' concerns about the scandal-ridden new councillor, according to the Associated Press. Santos became the sixth member in the history of the U.S. House of Representatives to be removed by his peers.
The vote on the motion to expel Santos was reportedly 311 to 114, easily reaching the required two-thirds majority. House Republican leaders all opposed the removal of Santos, who would have left them with a slim majority, but in the end 105 Republicans joined almost all Democrats in expelling Santos from the House.
The expulsion marked Santos' final crushing defeat in the U.S. Congress, the report said. There are reports that he lied about his Jewish ancestry, career and college degree at top Wall Street companies.
In May, Santos was indicted by federal prosecutors on multiple counts.
Santos' troubles are far from over, and he will stand trial in New York next year, the report said. Federal prosecutors charged him with cheating donors, stealing money from election campaigns, and lying to Congress in an indictment on 23 counts.
According to reports, the indictment specifically accuses Santos of stealing the identities of campaign donors and then using their credit cards to swipe tens of thousands of dollars without authorization. Prosecutors said he then remitted some of the funds into his personal bank account, with the rest used to replenish his campaign coffers. (Compiled by Zhang Lin).