George Santos defies calls to resign ahead of third expulsion vote in US House

The US House of Representatives will hold a third vote to expel Congressman George Santos from its ranks later this week, party leaders have said.

Two previous efforts to oust the New Yorker from his seat have failed, but a damning ethics report on his time in office has all but assured his removal.

Republicans, including their new Speaker, have urged the 35-year-old to resign so they can avoid another vote.

Mr Santos concedes the next vote will likely succeed, but he remains defiant.

“It’s the third time we are going through this. I don’t care,” he told reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

“The political class in Washington DC – if they want to send me home, if they think this was a fair process, if they think this is how it should be done, and if they’re confident that this is a constitutional way of doing it, God bless their hearts.”

The Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, told reporters that he believed the vote would take place on Friday.

During a Wednesday news conference, Mr Johnson said that he has “real reservations” about booting Mr Santos and setting a precedent that could be used against other lawmakers in the future.

“We’re going to allow people to vote their conscience,” Mr Johnson said at a Wednesday news conference. “I trust that people will make the decision thoughtfully and in good faith.”

Expulsion votes are rare in Congress – and if the latest one succeeds, Mr Santos will be only the sixth lawmaker in House history to get the boot.

Earlier this month, the House ethics committee found he “blatantly stole from his campaign” and exploited “every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit”.

Among the many allegations in its final report, the panel accused the Republican of spending campaign money on Botox treatments, OnlyFans purchases and vacations in the Hamptons.

Mr Santos slammed the report as a “politicised smear,” but said he would not seek a second term in light of the probe.

The Long Islander is already facing 23 federal felony charges, including wire fraud, money laundering and theft of public funds, as well as allegations of campaign finance violations.

He has survived two previous expulsion votes, with some lawmakers arguing he has not been convicted of any crimes and deserved “due process”.

Others who voted against those efforts said they wished to first see the House’s ethics probe concluded. Several of these members have since reversed their positions and now support Mr Santos’ removal.

As the House returned to work on Tuesday, two Democrats and the Republican chair of the ethics committee filed competing expulsion motions.

Both measures, known as privileged resolutions, must be addressed on the House floor within 48 hours, or by Thursday.

Republican leadership has indicated it will leave time for debate on Thursday and then advance to a vote on Friday.

The Democratic measure is an “insurance policy” intended to force a vote if Republicans do not bring up their own resolution this week, its co-author Robert Garcia told Axios.

Mr Santos has spent the days since the release of the ethics report bashing colleagues online and is expected to air more grievances in a press conference on Thursday morning.

The prospect of voting to remove him has proven a tricky matter for his party.

For one, it would further pare down Republicans’ already-unstable nine-seat House majority.

If Mr Santos is expelled, New York’s Governor would have a 10 day period to call for an election, which would take place between 70 and 80 days later.