Crenshaw on Santos explusion: The ethics violations were crystal clear and pretty serious

U.S. Representative Dan Crenshaw (R-Humble) was among the members of the U.S. House of Representatives who voted to expel U.S. Representative George Santos (R-N.Y.) after an ethics report showed that he lied and misused campaign funds. The final vote for Santos’ expulsion was 331-114. This development took place following a series of investigations and two prior votes, which Santos managed to survive.

"The ethics violations were crystal clear and pretty serious," Crenshaw said in a post-vote Tweet on Dec. 1. "Sure, there are always unserious, frivolous ethics accusations in Congress. This wasn’t one of those times."

The Committee on Ethics' report led Congressman Crenshaw to question why his Texas constituents’ tax dollars should continue to pay the now-former legislator's salary given the seriousness of his transgressions. According to Houston CBS affiliate KHOU News, despite having survived two prior expulsion votes, it was last month’s report from the House Ethics Committee that accused Santos of seeking to exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for personal financial gain.

Crenshaw strongly dismissed any suggestion that Santos was denied due process during these proceedings through a tweet he posted recently, stating: "The House Ethics Committee investigated this for months, gave Santos the opportunity to provide evidence and sworn statements (he never did), and then held a vote." He emphasized that the vote held by the committee was unanimous.

With Santos' immediate expulsion taking effect, NBC News has reported that this reduction brings the total number of House members down to 434 members at present. The Speaker has ordered the clerk to inform New York's governor about this decision so an election can be scheduled soon for its 3rd Congressional District which is now without a representative following these events. The network also noted that such an expulsion had not occurred since 2002 when Democrat James Traficant of Ohio was ousted by a 420-1 vote following his conviction on charges such as racketeering, bribery, obstruction of justice and tax evasion.