Today, the House Ethics committee announced an official investigation into the controversial background of Republican Congressman George Santos, who recently admitted he had lied about details on his résumé during his successful campaign to represent New York’s 3rd Congressional district. The freshman Representative has been facing growing calls to resign after misrepresenting his past to the public.
According to the committee’s statement, they will attempt to determine whether Santos “may have engaged in unlawful activity with respect to his 2022 congressional campaign; failed to properly disclose required information on statements filed with the House; violated federal conflict of interest laws in connection with his role in a firm providing fiduciary services; and/or engaged in sexual misconduct towards an individual seeking employment in his congressional office.”
“The House Committee on Ethics has opened an investigation, and Congressman George Santos is fully cooperating,” Santos’ office stated via Santos’ official Twitter account. “There will be no further comment made at this time.”
Representative Santos has been under scrutiny for his supposed background since September of last year. Claims about his education and degrees, his employment history, and his income have all been alleged to be false by various sources. Many of the institutions he claimed to have studied at have no record of him having attended and employers such as financial firms Citigroup and Goldman Sachs have both contradicted Santos’ claims that he was employed by them according to CNN.
Santos has also been involved in several criminal matters including charges of check fraud in Rio de Janeiro, charges of theft by deception in Pennsylvania, and alleged involvement in a credit card skimming scheme, according to CBS News. In December Santos was accused of sexual misconduct and an ethics violation by Derek Myers, a prospective staffer. Meyers detailed his experience with Santos in several Twitter posts.