George Santos

George Santos is a former U.S. Representative for New York's 3rd congressional district (R-NY), elected in 2022 and expelled from the House on December 1, 2023, after his biography was exposed as largely fabricated and the House Ethics Committee found he had stolen from his own campaign. His path crossed Nancy Mace's (R-SC) repeatedly: Mace was among the first Republicans to publicly brand his résumé a fabrication, then voted against expelling him, then hired his former communications director, and by 2026 had become a target of his public attacks.

What happened

The fabrications. After his 2022 election, The New York Times and other outlets established that large parts of Santos's biography were invented. He had claimed to work at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup (both firms said he never did), to hold degrees from Baruch College and NYU (no record of his enrollment), to have been a "Baruch Bearcats volleyball star," and to have Jewish grandparents who fled the Holocaust. Confronted, Santos said he had "embellished" his résumé and, on the heritage claim, that he had said he was "Jew-ish" rather than Jewish.

The Ethics report, November 16, 2023. The House Ethics Committee released an investigative report finding "substantial evidence" that Santos had broken federal law. The report said he "sought to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit" and "blatantly stole from his campaign," documenting campaign money spent on personal luxuries including a purchase at Hermès, Botox, and OnlyFans. The committee referred its findings to the Department of Justice.

Mace's earlier attacks. Mace had been one of the few Republicans to call for Santos to resign in early 2023. On CBS's Face the Nation on January 8, 2023, she said: "It's very clear his entire resume in life was manufactured" and "It's very difficult to work with anyone who cannot be trusted." At a Republican event weeks later she mocked his volleyball claim: "I mean who lies about playing college volleyball? If you're going to lie make it about something big, like you actually won the 2020 presidential election."

The expulsion, December 1, 2023, and Mace's vote. The House voted 311 to 114 to expel Santos, making him the sixth member expelled in House history and the first expelled without a criminal conviction. Mace voted no. She posted on X: "George Santos is an a--, who, like every other American, deserves the presumption of innocence until proven guilty in a court of law. Charges are not a conviction. Today's vote was not about accountability, which should have been in the hands of the courts and the people of NY-03. This was about shifting the balance of power in Congress, and I won't play those games." Critics surfaced her January statements as a contradiction.

Mace hires his communications director. In January 2024, Mace hired Santos's former communications director, Gabrielle Lipsky, into the same role. Lipsky had resigned from Santos's office on November 17, 2023, the day after the Ethics report. The hire, first reported by Fox News on January 8, 2024 (a year to the day after Mace's "manufactured" remark), came amid heavy turnover in Mace's office. See the dispatch for the full timeline.

The criminal case. Santos pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of New York on August 19, 2024, to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, admitting he filed fraudulent campaign-finance reports, charged donors' cards without authorization, fraudulently collected pandemic unemployment benefits, and stole the identities of 11 people, including family members. On April 25, 2025, he was sentenced to 87 months (about seven years) in prison, plus restitution and forfeiture. He began serving the term in July 2025.

The commutation, October 17, 2025. President Trump commuted Santos's sentence, posting that he had "signed a Commutation, releasing George Santos from prison, IMMEDIATELY." Santos was released after serving roughly two and a half months. The commutation ended the sentence but did not vacate the convictions.

The 2026 feud. As Mace pressed in April 2026 to expel Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL), Santos turned on her publicly. On April 21, 2026, he posted on X: "Paging all former Nancy Mace staffers to do the right thing and come forward and shed light on the creature she really is. It's time SC finds out the truth and put an end to her miserable political career once and for all." Mace's office did not publicly respond. Santos had earlier called Mace "unhinged" in December 2024 commentary.

George Santos

What happened

Sources

See also