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Congress hardly ever takes severe disciplinary steps towards its personal members, until their moral misdeeds rise to a federal crime. The final Home member expelled was James A. Traficant Jr., Democrat of Ohio, in 2002, after he was convicted of 10 felony counts together with bribery, racketeering and tax evasion.
The Home Ethics Committee, a bipartisan panel of lawmakers who’ve traditionally shied away from punishing their colleagues, has not commented on Mr. Santos’s case and is in a state of limbo till a brand new Congress is seated on Jan. 3. Had been the panel to launch an inquiry as soon as Mr. Santos turns into a member of Congress, its investigations are identified to pull on for months and even years and rarely end in a major punishment.
Members are at occasions issued fines or made to face within the properly of the Home for a public censure.
That occurred within the case of former Consultant Charles B. Rangel, the highly effective New York Democrat. The Home voted in 2010 to censure Mr. Rangel, probably the most extreme sanction it may administer wanting expulsion, after an Ethics Committee investigation discovered that he had damaged congressional guidelines by failing to report taxes on rental revenue from a villa within the Dominican Republic and misused his workplace to solicit fund-raising donations.
It’s unclear whether or not mendacity to voters earlier than taking workplace — by itself — can be a violation inside the jurisdiction of the Ethics Committee, however marketing campaign finance improprieties and making false statements on disclosures are sometimes grounds for investigation. Home guidelines additionally prohibit performing in a matter that brings discredit to the Home.
Some embattled members have chosen to resign, particularly beneath strain from occasion management. Consultant Katie Hill, Democrat of California, resigned in 2019 as she confronted a Home ethics investigation into allegations that she had a sexual relationship with a member of her congressional workers, a violation of Home guidelines.
Democrats have been fast to name on Mr. Santos to step down.
Consultant Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the incoming Home minority chief, blasted Mr. Santos final week.
“He seems to be a whole and utter fraud. His complete life story made up, and he’s going to need to reply that query: Did you perpetrate a fraud on the voters?” Mr. Jeffries informed reporters in Washington.
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