In a new letter to House GOP leader — and Speaker — Kevin McCarthy, the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington pleaded that first-term New York GOP Congressman George Santos not be allowed to serve on House committees where he could gain access to classified information.
That list includes the House Intelligence Committee and panels dealing with national security and the military. The list also features the House Oversight Committee, in the organization’s telling. The letter, signed by organization President Noah Bookbinder, argues Santos would likely be denied the needed security clearance if pursuing that approval outside his new Congressional role, leading to questions about why he should be provided an opportunity to nonetheless view classified info just because of his Congressional seat and accompanying assumptions he’s fit to do so. The routine process of approving security clearances involves checking applicants’ biographical details like their residential and employment history, and Santos was already caught in lies covering numerous aspects of his life.
“If in the regular course of events Rep. Santos would not be given a security clearance, it defies logic to think that our security infrastructure might nonetheless give him access to our nation’s most guarded secrets simply because he was elected to Congress,” Bookbinder’s letter said. He also advocated for Santos’s resignation, but acknowledging that wasn’t a given, Bookbinder offered general observations about the seriousness of the situation. “The misrepresentations Rep. Santos made are serious and raise questions about his reliability, trustworthiness, and good character,” he told McCarthy. “His violation of the voter’s trust means that he should resign his seat. But in the absence of his resignation, Congress needs to take immediate steps to protect our democratic institutions and guard our national interests by ensuring that Rep. Santos is not given access to classified information.”
Santos is also facing a new request for an investigation by the House Ethics Committee filed by New York Democratic Reps. Ritchie Torres and Daniel Goldman, who focused in their complaint on financial disclosure forms filed with the House when Santos was still a candidate. Santos filed those disclosures months late and didn’t include all the details that were evidently legally required, including info about clients of the high-end investment services company he says he leads, allegedly making a salary of three-quarters of a million dollars. Also recently filed was a request with the Federal Election Commission for a probe over concerns like the Santos campaign seemingly spending money on rent for a residence where Santos himself was living, although using campaign funds for that kind of personal expense is generally prohibited. Some of the individual campaign expenses Santos reported also raise concerns. Why was he spending tens of thousands on flights to run in a single U.S. House district?
NEW: Kevin McCarthy should not seat George Santos on any committee where he'd get access to classified information https://t.co/eJgWkit6gn
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) January 10, 2023
