BREAKING: House Ethics Committee Issues Report on George Santos

Here is the findings section of what is a voluminous report. It can be found at the House Ethics site.

I. FINDINGS
On November 14, 2023, the Committee unanimously voted to adopt the Report of the Investigative Subcommittee (ISC), which is enclosed as Appendix A. The Committee also unanimously voted, pursuant to Committee Rule 28, to refer to the Department of Justice (DOJ) substantial evidence that Representative Santos: knowingly caused his campaign committee to file false or incomplete reports with the Federal Election Commission; used campaign funds for personal purposes; engaged in fraudulent conduct in connection with RedStone Strategies LLC; and engaged in knowing and willful violations of the Ethics in Government Act as it relates to his
Financial Disclosure (FD) Statements filed with the House.

Amid a deferral request from DOJ and Representative Santos’ obfuscation and delay, the ISC expeditiously compiled a voluminous record consisting of over 170,000 pages of documents and testimony from dozens of witnesses, including financial statements, contemporaneous communications, and other materials. That record demonstrated the breadth of Representative Santos’ misconduct. As discussed in the ISC’s Report:

1. Representative Santos sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit.
2. He blatantly stole from his campaign.
3. He deceived donors into providing what they thought were
   contributions to his campaign but were in fact payments for his
   personal benefit.
4. He reported fictitious loans to his political committees to induce
   donors and party committees to make further contributions to his
   campaign – and then diverted more campaign money to himself as
   purported “repayments” of those fictitious loans.
5. He used his connections to high value donors and other political
   campaigns to obtain additional funds for himself through fraudulent
   or otherwise questionable business dealings.
6. And he sustained all of this through a constant series of lies to his
   constituents, donors, and staff about his background and
   experience.
   
   Representative Santos continues to flout his statutory financial disclosure obligations and has failed to correct countless errors and omissions in his past FD Statements, despite being repeatedly reminded by the ISC and the Committee of his requirement to do so. The ISC also found that, despite his attempts to blame others for much of the misconduct, Representative Santos was a knowing and active participant in the wrongdoing. Particularly troubling was Representative Santos’ lack of candor during the investigation itself. At the outset of the review, Representative Santos was given an opportunity, pursuant to Committee Rule 17(b), to submit a signed written statement responding to the allegations raised in a complaint filed by his fellow Members; he did not do so. The ISC requested that he provide all documents and information responsive to its Request for Information; he did not do so. The ISC asked him to voluntarily testify; he did not do so. The ISC also provided him the opportunity, pursuant to Committee Rule 19(b)(3), to provide a statement under oath, but he did not do so. Representative Santos’ repeated public statements that he would like to prove his innocence and is cooperating with the ISC’s investigation are belied by his consistent failure to meaningfully cooperate with the ISC’s review. The ISC and the Committee have now completed their review of the allegations and charges and have amassed overwhelming evidence of his misconduct. This evidence is summarized in the ISC’s Report.2