Support for George Santos expulsion grows after ethics report reveals OnlyFans spending: Latest

Perhaps spelling Mr Santos’s final fate, voters in his district and elsewhere around the state signaled in a poll published Monday that they favour the congressman resigning rather than spending two years in office. Even a plurality of Republicans, 49 per cent, said so.

Wherever Mr Santos goes from here, it’s hard to see a path for the 34-year-old freshman to win a second term as he faces unprecedented condemnation from his colleagues in every corner of Washington and hungry rivals back home.

Still working to keep the pressure on his in-state rival, Mr Torres brought a number of Mr Santos’s constituents to a press conference and touted his “SANTOS Act” — legislation that would force congressional candidates to supply basic information about their backgrounds to the federal government under penalty for perjury.

Just when everyone thought this story couldn’t get any weirder, a Brazilian drag performer by the name of Eula Rochard contacted a freelance reporter, Marisa Kabas, and supplied a picture of Mr Santos in drag.

The congressman, she said, performed in drag under the moniker “Kitara Ravache” when he lived in Brazil as a teenager.

Mr Santos would go on to deny this, but subsequent photos and videos emerged prompting another admission by the congressman, as well as this defeated quip: “Sue me.” It’s later discovered that a Wikipedia user who went by Mr Santos’s alias “Anthony Devolder” bragged about performing at a number of shows.

After days of reporters pressing House Speaker Kevin McCarthy about Mr Santos and whether he will be allowed to remain in Congress for two years, GOP leadership reveals that the extent of their punishment for Mr Santos’s countless lies will be assignments to smaller House committees with less desirable areas of expertise.

Mr Santos walks away from committee assignments with roles on two panels: the House Committee on Small Business, and the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.

Not keen to let his new feud against George Santos go, Mr Torres and his New York ally Dan Goldman file a request for the House Ethics Committee to probe Mr Santos’s improper filing of financial disclosure forms.

This marked the day that George Santos finally said goodbye to any immunity he had from attacks originating within his own party.

The Nassau County Republican Party held a press conference formally denouncing him as a member of Congress; it was attended by one of Mr Santos’s fellow GOP members, Anthony D’Esposito, who became the first sitting Republican to call for his ouster.

Happy New Year! While most Americans ring in the new year with champagne and late-night celebrations, George Santos wakes up the day after New Year’s Day to learn that he is now the only sitting member of Congress to face a serious international criminal investigation.

The New York Times, citing a spokesperson for prosecutors in Rio de Janeiro, reports that authorities intend to prosecute him for allegedly stealing a checkbook from an acquaintance of his mother and using it to make several purchases. The congressman has denied this.

Nassau County’s district attorney delivered a sharp statement just before the new year, insisting that “no one is above the law and if a crime was committed in this county, we will prosecute it.”

Again, it wasn’t clear what specific crime Mr Santos would supposedly be investigated for allegedly committing. But the district attorney of Nassau County is a Republican, and therefore her statement served as the first crack to appear in a dam protecting Mr Santos from the wrath of his own party.

“The numerous fabrications and inconsistencies associated with Congressman-Elect Santos are nothing short of stunning. The residents of Nassau County and other parts of the third district must have an honest and accountable representative in Congress,” Anne T Donnelly said.

A resurfaced clip shows George Santos denying any knowledge of the content platform OnlyFans, despite an ethics report detailing he spent campaign finance money on the platform in the months before.

In the interview from 30 March 2023, Fox News anchor Lisa Montgomery asked Mr Santos if he had an account. “I just discovered what OnlyFans was about three weeks ago,” he said. “I was oblivious.”

“You just can’t tell the truth”, Montgomery muttered.

The damning report, released on 16 November, found “grave and pervasive campaign finance violations” during his 2022 election campaign, including a personal subscription to the influencer platform.

The Republican New York Representative has announced he won’t seek re-election in 2024.

The findings laid out in the ethics report mark just the latest scandal to encircle Mr Santos after he was exposed for lying about a whole host of things on his resume, claiming that his mother died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks and being accused of stealing funds raised for a disabled veteran’s dying service dog.

These growing scandals have led many within the GOP to deem him unfit for office.

Earlier this month, the embattled New York congressman survived an expulsion vote in the House of Representatives, brought to the floor by fellow Republican lawmaker Anthony D’Esposito. The resolution needed a two-thirds majority to succeed but fell well short.

Now, pressure is mounting on the Republican party to vote to expel him in light of the report revelations.

Others who voted to save Mr Santos in the last expulsion vote told Axios that this time round they will support his removal.

“He’s gone,” one House Republican said.