Santos calls Ethics Committee report a ‘dirty biased act’ that ‘tramples over all of my rights’

Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) took to social media Thursday evening after the House Ethics Committee released a scathing report about his potential federal crimes, calling politics and the report  “dirty.”

“What the ‘ethics committee’ did today was not part of due process, what they did was poison…the jury pool on my on going investigation with the DOJ,” Santos said in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “This was a dirty biased act and one that tramples all over my rights.”

The report, released Thursday, referred its findings of “potential violations of federal criminal law” to the Department of Justice and will raise questions about whether the House will expel Santos.

The freshman New York congressman has been wrapped up in controversy since before he formally became a member of the House and has admitted to fabricating aspects of his backstory and resume, The Hill previously reported.

Santos has called the investigations his “year from Hell.”

“Running for office was never a dream or goal, but when the opportunity to do so came I felt the time to serve my country was now,” Santos’ post said.

The report stated that Santos “cannot be trusted” and found that he “blatantly stole from his campaign.” The committee found that Santos could have wrongfully used thousands of dollars from his campaign on vacations and cosmetic procedures.

The New York representative is facing 23 federal criminal counts on allegations that he misled donors, fraudulently received unemployment benefits, lied on House financial disclosures, inflated his campaign finance reports and charged his donors’ credit cards without authorization. He has already endured two expulsion efforts.

Online, Santos said he knows one thing. “Politics is indeed dirty, dirty from the very bottom up.”

“Consultants, operatives, the opposition, the party and more…the one thing I never knew was that the process in Congress was dirty,” his post said. “I will continue to fight for what I believe in and I will never back down.

Following the report’s release, Santos said he would not seek reelection in 2024. He said he will serve his constituents for as long as he is allowed, signaling that he does not plan to resign.

The congressman said he will be hosting a press conference Friday morning at the Capitol and encouraged members of the media to attend.