RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — New York Congressman George Santos faces another expulsion resolution. A vote could come soon after the Thanksgiving holiday.
This week a report from the House Committee on Ethics released its final report that included allegations that he broke numerous laws. Republican committee chair Michael Guest called expulsion “most appropriate punishment.”
Wake County representative Deborah Ross said she is one of the people who will vote in favor of expelling Santos. Ross is also on the House Ethics Committee that did the investigation.
On Friday, Ross sat down with CBS 17’s Russ Bowen. Here’s what she had to day about the allegations:
Ross: “Santos used his campaign as his personal piggy bank, so there are so many rules for how you use campaign funds, how you report those funds, how you interact with your donors. He violated all of those rules. So he was basically using campaign funds for personal use, but creating shell loans and relationships with organizations that he had control over, directing his staff to falsify records. He basically used the context of the campaign as a way to get money that he used for his personal benefit and that not only violates ethics it violates the law, and it’s a horrible reflection on members of Congress. In the meantime, he was using funds to travel for lavish expenses for cosmetic, you know, enhancements, let’s just say.”
Bowen: “Well, I mean, let’s just get into it. Botox, Hermès. Right? Ferragamo. We can go on down the list. I mean, these are high-end retailers that he was shopping at allegedly.”
Ross: “Correct. So which goes back to my initial statement that he was using his campaign finances to fund his lifestyle.”
Bowen: “With all due respect to the committee, it’s not the youngest crowd in the world and I put myself in that category because I’m not either. Did they have to get a primer on what OnlyFans is? I mean, how many of them even knew what that is?”
Ross: “Well, I was not on the investigatory subcommittee, so I don’t know whether they got any kind of background, but we pretty much got the report in advance of our committee meeting because we had to vote all in person, face-to-face, to accept the findings of the report and, as I said, we did so unanimously, but we had several days to review the report and I read every page of that report and made sure I was familiar with it before I voted.”
