washington ap protecting a waferthin fourvote majority republican leaders in the house are making clear that they intend to let the legal process play out with rep george santos before they take steps to force his resignation or expel him the freshman congressman was accused wednesday by federal prosecutors of embezzling money from his campaign falsely receiving unemployment funds and lying to congress about his finances and could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted santos pleaded not guilty republican leaders who for months have faced mounting questions about santos after most of his campaign biography was exposed as a lie were unmoved and brushed aside calls including from some colleagues that they take immediate action to push santos out of congress “in america there’s a presumption of innocence but they’re serious charges he’s going to have to go through the legal process” said house majority leader steve scalise of louisiana from the archives december 2022 republican congressmanelect george santos admits to lying about his biography saying he only claimed to be jewish and not jewish scalise was seconded by republican rep elise stefanik of new york the no 3 house republican who sidestepped the question of whether santos should resign “as i’ve said from the very beginning on questions on this subject this legal process is going to play itself out” she said the position republican leaders have staked out generally follows the precedent that congress has set in similar criminal cases over the years the house has expelled just two members in recent decades and both votes occurred after the lawmaker had been convicted on federal charges but many say the narrow majority that republicans won in the house is surely another factor in the gop leadership’s thinking “there are a few members of the new york delegation and a few others calling for his immediate expulsion on the republican side which could tilt the leadership’s hand but given where we’re at with the debt limit and a fourvote majority they don’t want to lose any of those votes right now” said casey burgat an assistant professor who leads the legislative affairs program at george washington university santos whose new york home district is long island–based is adamant that he will stay in congress and seek reelection in a press conference outside a long island federal courthouse he spoke wednesday of getting back to washington so he could vote on a top house gop priority a border bill that would restrict some asylum seekers and boost border enforcement context george santos indicted here’s what his political future could be also see house ethics panel launches probe into new york republican george santos plus us rep–elect santos should consider quitting over résumé lies says veteran house republican he ended up voting for that bill thursday as well as one that seeks to give states more incentive to pursue cases of unemployment insurance fraud one of the counts santos faces is that he fraudulently collected unemployment benefits during the pandemic even though he was being paid a substantial salary at the time santos also voted last month for the house gop bill that ties a debtlimit extension to an estimated 48 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years in a dramatic flourish santos was the last republican to cast a vote in favor of that bill helping it win passage by a paperthin margin 217215 see debtceiling standoff here’s what could go into a bipartisan deal also trump on debt ceiling during cnn ‘town hall’ gop should force government default if democrats won’t make ‘massive’ spending cuts while gop leaders say the legal system needs to run its course a few republicans have seen enough “the people of new york’s 3rd district deserve a voice in congress” tweeted rep tony gonzales a texas republican “george santos should be immediately expelled from congress and a special election initiated at the soonest possible date” the house and the senate have the power to punish members of their chamber for misconduct including through expulsion to date according to the congressional research service 20 members have been expelled but the large majority of them occurred at the outset of the civil war half of the 20 expulsions were the result of a single vote in the senate involving senators who represented states that had seceded from the union but had not formally resigned the two most recent expulsions followed convictions on public corruption charges   rep michael j “ozzie” myers of pennsylvania was convicted of bribery and conspiracy for taking money from fbi agents who posed as arab sheiks he was expelled in 1980 following his conviction and served more than a year in prison   rep james traficant of ohio was expelled in 2002 three months after he was found guilty of 10 federal charges including racketeering bribery and fraud for taking bribes and kickbacks from businessmen and his own staff both myers and traficant who died in 2014 served in office as democrats some lawmakers have also resigned upon being convicted of a crime preempting an expulsion vote last year rep jeff fortenberry a nebraska republican resigned from office after a california jury convicted him of lying to federal authorities about an illegal campaign donation from a foreign national two years earlier rep duncan hunter a california republican submitted his resignation about a month after pleading guilty to a charge of conspiring with his wife to steal about 250000 in campaign funds to pay for a lavish lifestyle from vacations to outings with friends and private school tuition trump also pardoned former rep chris collins a new york republican who had resigned in 2019 ahead of admitting to helping his son and others dodge 800000 in stockmarket losses when he learned that a drug trial by a small pharmaceutical company had failed from the archives september 2018 indicted congressmen collins and hunter try to do what no one has done since 1990 more than three dozen democratic lawmakers have signed onto a bill from rep robert garcia a california democrat that would expel santos from the house “it’s pretty clear to everyone including his constituents that he is a complete fraud and shouldn’t be in congress” garcia said garcia said mccarthy is not pushing to expel santos because he needs his vote he urged the several republicans from new york who have criticized santos to sign on to the expulsion legislation “he can barely keep his caucus together on votes so it’s clear that he’s using george santos’ support to keep him in leadership” garcia said during a press conference thursday the house democratic leader rep hakeem jeffries stood in front of a photo of santos and rep marjorie taylor greene rga known for her incenderary rhetoric and said it was time for the gop conference “to decide who are you” “i’ve made clear that george santos is not fit to serve in the united states house of representatives and the american people share that opinion as well including the overwhelming majority of the people in the third congressional district in new york” jeffries said republicans deny that santos has been a distraction and say they are focused on other issues “this place is bigger than any one member” said rep kevin hern a republican from oklahoma the chairman of the powerful republican study committee despite the reports that santos was facing federal charges and a crush of media attention at his arraignment in new york republicans said there was no discussion of him during their weekly closeddoor caucus meeting on wednesday morning “i never heard his name mentioned once” said rep andrew clyde a republican from georgia there’s a george santos bobblehead with a pinocchiostyle nose and that’s no lie george santos has ‘disgraced’ us house and should resign say fellow long island republicans why republicans are opposing a senate bid to tighten up supreme court ethics amid clarence thomas questions tulsi gabbard challenges george santos ‘do you have no shame’ finding the comedy in the kevin mccarthy speaker drama ‘this is the best season of cspan … ever’