The short answer is: Nothing. At least in Washington, D.C.
The story in New York is different.
Federal and local prosecutors are investigating whether his multiple lies broke any laws. Anne Donnelly, the local prosecutor in Nassau County, where he was elected, is a Republican, and she too has opened an investigation.
The New York Times, which broke the original story, reported last night:
Federal and local prosecutors are investigating whether Representative-elect George Santos committed any crimes involving his finances and lies about his background on the campaign trail.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have opened an investigation into Mr. Santos that is focused at least in part on his financial dealings, according to a person familiar with the matter. The investigation was said to be in its early stages.
In a separate inquiry, the Nassau County, N.Y., district attorney’s office said it was looking into the “numerous fabrications and inconsistencies associated with Congressman-elect Santos” during his successful 2022 campaign to represent parts of Long Island and Queens.
It was unclear how far the Nassau County inquiry had progressed, but the district attorney, Anne Donnelly, said in a statement that Mr. Santos’s fabrications “are nothing short of stunning.”
Why are the Republicans in Congress silent?
Charlie Sykes, who used to be a conservative Republican, writes in The Bulwark that Kevin McCarthy needs Santos’ vote. End of story. His colleagues are saying “He’s learned his lesson,” although he remains defiant. Santos says “Everyone embellishes his resume.” But the proper word is not “embellish,” it’s “lie.” The Congressman-elect lied about his education, lied about his employment, lied about his religion, lied about his family. What part of his resume is true? No one knows.
Probably none of it except his name.
Sykes writes:
Of course, a political party with any sort of intact immune system would move quickly to send this sociopath back to ScamLand, whence he came.
But this is the GOP circa 2022, and so it faces a painful dilemma. With a narrow majority in the House, Republicans (and especially Kevin McCarthy) need his vote, of course.
But that’s not the real problem here, is it?
After years of ignoring, enabling, and rationalizing Big Lies and small ones, it will now be exceedingly difficult for the GOP to find their misplaced conscience that might morph into outrage and something like a moral standard. As Nick Catoggio writes:
Anyone willing to set aside their qualms about Trump for the sake of holding executive power logically should be willing to set aside their qualms about Santos for the sake of holding legislative power
So, not surprisingly, GOP leaders are either silent, or in a forgiving mood.
To deepen the puzzle of Santos, read this article in The Daily Beast about one of his big donors.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
What will the GOP do? Give him a medal because he won and the GOP is all about winning, no matter the cost.
It is clear that we need statues protecting the electorate from lying politicians. Bald-faced lying has to have consequences, up to and including invalidating the candidate’s election. We can distinguish between errors of statement and lies. But modern communication vehicles allow for a lot more lying than we can process. If lying got one’s election invalidated, why the parties would be fact-checking the candidates for us (and the parties could be prosecuted for lying, too).
If we really want to “protect” our representative democracy, we need to get both the money and lying out.
I think you are generous in thinking he is using his true name.
Santos is a vote for McCarthy – nothing will be done! He will fit right in with the rest of the GOP liars.
The Republicans won’t do anything until “after” he’s sworn in. Then, and only then, will any action be taken about his removal, because then he will be replaced by another Republican. The Democrats would do the same.
That is not the case. The House leadership does not appoint a replacement EVER ! There is a special election called by the Governor of the state the seat belongs to.
Correct. I was thinking of local and state replacement processes. Sorry.
Maybe we should give him a Purple Heart or ask him where he graduated in his class or send him to beat up Corn Pop. Unfortunately we have come to expect lying by our politicians and simply look the other way when they are on our “team.” They should all be fired and put in stocks for a few weeks.
Speaking of fraud and serial liars, this is a head turner of a story from Texas. It involves Greg Abbott, Mike Morath, a January 6th participant, and a convicted felon, along with other ne’er do wells and Texas school boards.
https://billytownsend.substack.com/p/the-james-dunn-files-why-is-texas
Egg on the face of those invested in the idea that Santos would increase to three, the number of US Representatives who are Jewish and Republican (in 2021, 24 US House Reps were Jewish and Democratic). The breakdown for Catholics is 74 Democrats and 56 Republicans. Adding Santos to the 2021 numbers would make it, 57 Republicans.
Egg on the face of Dems who thinking Santos wan’t a threat in a Democrat-leaning race didn’t do enough background search soon enough (e.g. Suozzi)
Whether it is true or not,I heard that Zimmerman went to the media with allegations and was dismissed. I could make a few calls and find out.
That media, Russian or conservative Catholic or, ?
Linda
I am assuming he went to LI Newsday. Which probably has as large a potential readership as any Local paper outside of Chicago , LA and of course NYC.
But the report was a bleep on Morning Smoe which makes it almost as reliable as Russian disinformation or the Washington Times (a little excessive literary license there).
Tangential-
Internet commenters take issue with moderate Dems (neoliberals) who could use the energy they spend to defeat progressive Dems on defeating the GOP. In Ohio, moderate Dems like Pelosi brought full guns against Nina Turner.
Linda
I am not sure where Zimmerman stood on the Democratic spectrum. Saying he was not for de-funding the police in his district . One of the wealthiest in the Nation does not say much about him ideologically .
He was not in my district. Suozzi in the old 3rd CD fit your description. He ran to the right of Hochul on law and order . While he tried to portray Hochul as a progressive. She is anything but.
It’s also horrific that no one–not his opponent, not the media, did ANY research on this creep until AFTER the election. The whole catastrophe makes me ill.
Republicans have always rejected the concept of conflict of interest, now they ignore shame. There is no bottom. Dante would be impressed…
What Will the Democrats Do About Serial Liar Joe Biden?
https://mobile.twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1605967111112851457
What will the Democrats do about the liar Wes Moore who has been elected to be Gov of MD? I guess because Oprah promoted Wes’s fake biographical book it makes his lies OK (she also gave a career boost to Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz)? I guess Wes’s job with the Robin Hood Foundation laundering money for rich hedge funds is OK….because the Robin Hood foundation is in the “business” of helping the poor in NYC (look at its Board!).
Both sides lie and point fingers at the other but nothing but a slap on the hand is administered as punishment. This has been going on for years and grifters are now aided and abetted by elected officials in order to win “the house/seat”. It’s just more blatant than it used to be. Time for term limits, a decrease in salary and benefits for those elected (they have the best healthcare/retirement ever….and for life!) and to overturn Citizens United.
Well, now that you brought up the Robin Hood Foundation, here’s a dirty I wrote long long ago about tge Sure would Forest
Robin the Hood
Robbin’ the hood
Of public schools
Fillin’ with flood
Of charter tools
Out of the wood
With his Merry Men
Robin the Hood
Has struck again
A dirty ditty
LisaM, it’s so disappointing to listen to you repeating right wing talking points about Wes Moore in order to normalize what Santos did — similar to how the right wing always uses those same disingenuous talking points to normalize the far right while demonizing Democrats. The far right needs useful idiots to help them, and it is only when useful idiots help the far right that these exaggerations about a Democrat’s corruption takes hold. I do NOT like Wes Moore’s position on education and I do NOT like the Robin Hood Foundation’s support of charter schools. But I criticize Wes Moore for his terrible positions instead of trying to use him to help the far right by pushing a narrative that both sides do this. They don’t.
Bernie Sanders’ stepson was paid $100,000 a year as a totally unqualified hire at the Sanders Institute which got donations from unions. That doesn’t mean that “both sides” — far right Republicans like Santos and left wing Socialists like Bernie Sanders and his family — are equally corrupt.
Wes Moore’s relationship with Baltimore has been parsed the way Al Gore’s relationship with Erich Segal’s book “Love Story” was parsed and Al Gore’s relationship to the internet was parsed. Al Gore didn’t invent the internet and Tipper Gore wasn’t the Ali McGraw character in Love Story, but Al Gore was the Ryan O’Neal character and Gore did play an instrumental part in supporting the early years of the internet. Al Gore got demonized as a liar because he didn’t make any effort to correct other people’s exaggerations and used the kind of short hand we all do when its too complicated to explain. Are you allowed to say you live in Baltimore if you live 10 miles outside in a suburb no one knows? If you say you were born in Brooklyn but your parents lived in Brooklyn but happened to have an OB that worked out of a Manhattan hospital, where you were born, can you use short hand to say you are a native of Brooklyn or are you “lying”? Does it matter if everyone calls you a native of Brooklyn but in fact your parents didn’t move from Queens to Brooklyn until you were 3 weeks old?
Just saying that while I happen to disagree strongly with some of Wes Moore’s policies, to push a false narrative that Moore is like Santos can be cited to imply that the person who said that is no different than Santos either. But that doesn’t make it true.
Here’s one of the reasons why the GOP is silent about George Santos:
“Marjorie Taylor Greene Rages At Tulsi Gabbard For Not Going Easy On George Santos” — Josephine Harvey
Wed, December 28, 2022 at 4:50 PM PST·4 min read
The link to this piece was too long to share here. If you want to read it, copy that pull quote into a Google search and you should easily find it.
It is apparent to me that most elected Republicans, even if they secretly do not approve of or agree with the traitor, are not only mortally corrupt but cowards. They do not want to risk angering Trump loyalists like Margorie Tayler Green and losing any MAGA RINO votes.
Tulsi may not want her reputation further connected to Russians.
Santos’ source of money?- media is digging into it.
Lay off Mr. Santos. The poor man’s mother died twice, for God’s sake.
Our country will have truly plunged in Banana Republic territory if everyone, and I mean everyone, doesn’t immediately express complete outrage over what this guy has done.
The real question is how did this guy manage to “loan” many hundreds of thousands of dollars to his campaign?
The real question is where did all the money that supported him come from?
The lies were absolutely about creating a false narrative that made all of the money Santos had plausible.
And the source of that wealth keeps changing by the day. The latest seems to be that he was selling 2nd hand luxury goods like yachts and airplanes!! Undocumented, of course.
It is clear that there is something odd about this private equity firm called Link Bridge where this grifter who kept defaulting on his debts worked as a supposedly highly valued employee.
The media is doing their usual bang up job of ignoring what is right in front of their eyes. Why was Santos hired to work at Link Bridge and what was he doing?
I don’t know if LinkBridge Investors is related to George Santos. The testimonials at the website include Maryland State Retirement and Pension System, Texas State University , Regis University, the Treasury Manager of the city of Stamford and various private firms. The public entities that LinkBridge listed didn’t identify specific individuals.
Linda,
Testimonials don’t make Linkbridge legit, IMO. Their office address is in one of those “corporate office suites” – shared office space for rent. TalkingPointsMemo.com is doing some good reporting and describes is thus: “It’s a company that says it puts on closed-door conferences for top investors to network.” Hmmm…
But you are right that there is something fishy about Harbor City and Devolder (which seem to have some of the same cast of characters).
NYC public school parent
You heard it here first !! The real question is where this High School drop out and petty thief learned how to structure these pass troughs. I say there is zero chance that the same crooked violations of campaign finance laws, (where profits /donations were funneled through a front corporation to his campaign) has not been used by multiple Republicans .
Harbor City Capital is also in the spotlight.
The Republican House will probably seat him on Jan 2, if indicted and convicted he can be expelled by a 2/3 vote of the House
“Under Article I, Section 5, clause 2, of the Constitution, a Member of Congress may be removed from office before the normal expiration of his or her constitutional term by an “expulsion” from the Senate (if a Senator) or from the House of Representatives (if a Representative) upon a formal vote on a resolution agreed to by two-thirds of the Members of that body present and voting”
I don’t believe the House Republicans will expel him. They need his seat. If he is indicted, that’s a different story.
Should citizens expect justice for Santos that comes at glacial speed (e.g. Trump in the New York and federal jurisdictions)?
Indict him for what, lying? Lying and padding resumes are not crimes or impeachable offensives. However, if he lied or falsified a legal document or an application, that’s a different story.
The prosecutors are looking for financial crimes, not lies.
He claims he put $800K of his “own money” into his campaign fund. If they can find that some of that money, or all of it, can from outside sources, and he didn’t declare it, then yes, he’s in trouble.
I’ve always questioned why someone would use $800K of their own money for a job that pays less than $200K a year.
In New Jersey we had a governor, who as a former US Senator spent $60 million of his own money in his senatorial campaign, only to resign from it to run for governor, where he spent another $60 million of his own money in that campaign. And he would have resigned as governor if President Obama offered him a cabinet post.
If expelled the Governor sets a date for an election, Zelden could run ….
Wow. His mom died on 9/11 (lie). Two employees of his were murdered at Pulse nightclub (lie). What’s next? His granny was killed by the Manson family? Seems “George Santos” is quite the tragedy vulture.
No doubt he tailor made his image for the district that elected him. Reprehensible. But it’s pretty incredible that all of this flew under the radar during the campaign. Dems were overconfident and complacent. Similar to Hillary’s campaign (or lack thereof) in the Midwest.
Angel Fool’s Cake
We’re living in a world of lies
Where lots of stuff is fake
And everyone should be advised
Of cake than angels bake
Why the Fouth Estate matters and how defunding local news endangers democracy. No paywall:
https://wapo.st/3GvmWTs
Christine,
I marked that article last night and planned to post it. Fascinating that no one listened. Newsday, the big LI newspaper, was informed by the little paper but ignored the lead.
Been following this since hearing about attempts to block Sinclair from buying a paper in Seattle.
Now this (and not so surprising):
https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/04/an-immediate-drop-in-content-a-new-study-shows-what-happens-when-big-companies-take-over-local-news/
With Sinclair Broacasting sucking up all the air on local newscasts as well, we’re in a bad spot.
BTW, Diane, I was extremely disappointed in Sean Patrick Maloney’s performance as DCC chair. He pushed progressive Mondaire Jones out of his home district, then lost that seat to a Republican in the final. A more competent person would have shouted loud enough from the rooftops about Santos so someone might have heard. New York might have tipped the balance in the House.
Gitapik – you and I are following the same trail.
“Gitapik – you and I are following the same trail”.
Sadly; yes.
And I hear you about New York and the House. Can’t really say we were blindsided.
There’s reporting that “George Santos’ ” funding source is Russian.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/republican-george-devolder-santos-got-cash-from-andrew-intrater-cousin-of-russian-oligarch-viktor-vekselberg
Here’s an interview with the Congressman-elect at CPAC on March 4, 2022. He mentions his familiarity with Moscow.
https://rumble.com/vwg4k9-cpac-2022-interview-with-george-santos.html
Like so many in congress—he lacks integrity. I doubt that he would be expelled “but by the grace of God go I” as many of the congress would think. It is up to the citizens of New York to make his 2 years as they wish. I hope that they would vote for honesty. Surely there is a person with integrity in that district.