Today is Thursday, November 16, 2023. Today the long-awaited House Ethics Committee released its report on the most unqualified member of Congress, even outdistancing the disreputable Marjorie Taylor Greene by a mile, George Santos, with the obvious conclusion that there was “substantial evidence” that the New York congressman used campaign funds for personal purposes. As a direct result of this scathing report, the sweater-wearing fabulist has announced, thankfully, that he will not run for office once more in 2024. This good news is covered in an online CNN article by Clare Foran, Marshall Cohen, Melanie Zanona, and Annie Grayer entitled “George Santos announces he won’t seek reelection following damning Ethics Committee report.”

The committee said it uncovered additional “uncharged and unlawful conduct” by Santos that go beyond the criminal allegations already pending against him and would immediately refer the allegations to the Justice Department for further investigation.

What Santos allegedly engaged in will curl your hair: he supposedly engaged in “knowing and willful violations” with regard to financial disclosure statements filed with the House, according to the panel, and “knowingly caused his campaign committee to file false or incomplete reports with the Federal Election Commission.”

Here the committee concluded that Santos “sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit.” What a disgusting way of conducting oneself in the halls of Congress and it took only nine months for this committee to release its damnable report on the worst member of Congress. Allegedly, Santos used campaign funds to perform cosmetic procedures on himself, including getting Botox treatments to look more attractive to his gay followers, perhaps. Or is he married? Who fucking knows?

Following the release of the report, Santos did a Trump by denouncing the investigation, calling it a “biased report.” He added more nonsense, saying, “It is a disgusting, politicized [notice he didn’t say “witch hunt” here] smear that shows the depths of how low our federal government has sunk. Everyone who participated in this grave miscarriage of Justice [sic] should all be ashamed of themselves.” Don’t you just love how this prick turns the subject upside down and avoids acknowledging his own guilt in this matter. He just condemns the government for conducting this “smear” against him. Santos seems to have learned well from Chump that when in trouble, the response is to try to discredit everyone who has exposed the problem.

The new report is expected to fuel an ongoing push to expel Santos, an effort that has failed in the past despite garnering some support from Republicans. But this is a different matter now – the investigation has uncovered substantial corroboration of Santos’s monumentally illegal and unethical behavior while being a House member. Now lawmakers who support expulsion for Santos have said they believe the report will be enough to convince more members to support the effort.

The panel said that the conduct of the congressman merits “public condemnation, is beneath the dignity of the office, and has brought severe discredit upon the House.” The panel also said Santos “did not fully cooperate” with the investigation.

In pursuit of Santos’s expulsion, House Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest, a Mississippi Republican, will make a motion to oust the fabulist as soon as Friday during the pro forma session, a source familiar with the matter told CNN, which would tee up action on the issue for when Congress returns from the Thanksgiving recess.

The extensive evidence against Santos includes using campaign funds for lavish personal use as he racked up significant travel expenses for flights, hotels, Ubers, and meals that do not appear to have any political or campaign purpose.

Specifically, in December 2021, there were taxi and hotel charges from Las Vegas on the campaign credit card, even though that was a time when Santos had told his campaign staff he was on his honeymoon (?) and there were no campaign events on his calendar.

There were also spa and cosmetic services that did not appear to have a campaign purpose, such as $1,400 at Virtual Skin Spa in Jericho, New York, in July 2022.

There was a $1,500 purchase on the campaign debit card at Mirza Aesthetics, which was not reported to the FEC and was noted as “Botox” in expense spreadsheets. The $1,400 charge at Virtual Skin Spa was a campaign debit card purchase that was also described as “Botox” in the spreadsheets.

There you have the charges found against Santos in the House Ethics Committee report. On the face of it, there is incontrovertible evidence that Santos is not just a liar but a felon as well. He does not deserve to remain one extra day in Congress, so let’s see if the House has the balls to do the right thing in this situation, and that is, expel him as fast as possible.

It’s getting late here. Today we spent the day driving to the Catskills to visit Elliot’s old bungalow friend “Serena” who still lives year-round in the small house that is close to 220 years old. We left early – well, early for us (we got up at 8:30) – about 10 a.m. to drive to Sullivan County, stopping at IHOP on Route 17 in Ramsey, New Jersey. We arrived at Serena’s place a little after 1. We took her out to lunch at a local eatery and then drove back to her cabin. We stayed until about 4:30 and stopped at the Coach House Diner in Hackensack. We got home after 8, I believe.

Stay safe and be well.