Yes, Santos is the first member of Congress to be expelled without being convicted of a crime or committing treason

Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) was expelled from the U.S. House of Representatives on Dec. 1.

In a rare move, his colleagues in Congress voted 311-114 to remove him from office. Members of the House Ethics Committee pushed for the resolution after investigating Santos for numerous accusations of fraud. Federal prosecutors have also brought criminal charges, though Santos has not yet been convicted of anything.

Ahead of the vote, Santos sought to defend himself and claimed, “I will be the only one [ever expelled from Congress] without a conviction or without having committed treason.”

THE QUESTION

Is George Santos the first member of Congress to be expelled without being convicted of a crime or having committed treason?

THE SOURCES

• U.S. House of Representatives
• U.S. Senate
• Historical news reports

THE ANSWER

Yes, George Santos is the first member of Congress to be expelled without being convicted of a crime or having committed treason.

WHAT WE FOUND

The U.S. Constitution says a member can be expelled from the House or Senate with a two-thirds vote of the members of that chamber.

The House and Senate keep records of each time this has happened. 

According to House records, only five representatives had been expelled before George Santos. 

The first three were in 1861, all for treason when they joined the Confederacy and took up arms against the Union.

The next expulsion wasn’t until 1980. Rep. Michael Myers (D-Pa.) was convicted of bribery, and expelled from the House a month later.

The most recent expulsion before Santos’s was 2002, when Rep. James Traffikent (D-Ohio) was also expelled following a bribery conviction.

In the history of the Senate, 15 members have been expelled, all for treason.

One senator was expelled in 1797 for meddling in foreign affairs with a scheme to attack what was then Spanish territory and hand it over to Britain.

Fourteen senators were expelled in 1861 for supporting the Confederacy.

All told, that makes 18 members of Congress expelled for treason and two expelled following bribery convictions. George Santos has not been accused of treason, and though he has been indicted on 23 federal criminal counts related to fraud, his trial isn’t scheduled to begin until at least late next year.