Lead impeachment supervisor for Donald Trump’s second Home trial, January 6 committee member, most cancers survivor, and now—copy editor? Congressman Jamie Raskin added one other line to his prolonged resume on Friday in a tart response to embattled New York Consultant George Santos, who had penned a poorly written letter thanking the Maryland Democrat for voting in opposition to kicking him out of the Home of Representatives.
Santos’s letter got here two days after most Republicans and 31 Democrats voted in opposition to a decision led by 5 of Santos’s fellow first-term New York Republicans who’ve been anxious to distance themselves from their disgraced colleague. The 179-213 tally fell far beneath the two-thirds majority wanted to expel a Home member.
“I’m writing to precise my gratitude to you for standing as much as the principals of due course of and the presumption of innocence till confirmed responsible,” Santos wrote. In copy edits handwritten on his copy of the letter and later reported by Politico, Raskin cheekily let Santos know that “principals” ought to have been “rules.”
“Pricey Congressman Santos, I recognize your observe and solely want somebody had proofread it first,” Raskin wrote. “Meantime, it is best to apologize to the individuals of New York for all your lies and deceit. I do know you need to have thought you could possibly get away with all of it within the social gathering of Trump, however the fact is resilient.” The Maryland consultant ended the letter with a “P.S.”: “It’s not shameful to resign.”
Santos presently faces 23 federal fees, 10 of which got here in a superseding indictment filed in early October. He has pleaded not responsible to all the fees, which accuse him of mendacity about his wealth, illegally receiving unemployment advantages, and misusing marketing campaign contributions, amongst different unlawful acts. His trial is scheduled for September 2024, simply earlier than the election to resolve whether or not the GOP can maintain onto its razor-slim Home majority.
A Home Ethics Committee can also be presently wanting into Santos, and has reportedly already been in contact with 40 witnesses, examined greater than 170,000 pages of paperwork, and accredited 37 subpoenas. The committee is slated to announce its subsequent steps later this month.
Raskin, a constitutional legislation professor, has argued that Santos ought to have the prospect to undergo his prison trial and Home ethics investigation. “I’m a Structure man,” he informed Axios of his vote to not expel. “If and when Santos is convicted of those severe prison offenses or ethics fees, I’ll definitely vote to expel. Till then, it’s a really dangerous street to go down, and we have now to stay by due course of and the rule of legislation, as apparent because the eventual consequence appears.”
Wednesday’s decision, if handed, would have made Santos the sixth particular person ever to be expelled from the Home in U.S. historical past, three of which have been kicked out in the course of the Civil Struggle. The 2 latest expulsions over the previous fifty years have been members convicted on prison fees.
Santos stays defiant within the face of the assorted investigations into his marketing campaign of deceit. On Friday, he informed CNN’s Manu Raju that he was planning on operating once more for Congress in 2024, and insisted that his constituents in New York’s third congressional district didn’t vote for him final 12 months based mostly on the small print of his fabricated life. “No person knew my biography. No person opened my biography who voted for me within the marketing campaign,” he stated. “No person elected me as a result of I performed volleyball or not. No person elected me as a result of I graduated school or not. Folks elected me as a result of I stated I’d come right here to combat the swamp, I’d come right here to decrease inflation, create extra jobs, make life extra reasonably priced, and the dedication to America.”
Santos isn’t the one Republican whose statements of late might have used a proofread. In certainly one of his first fundraising emails since taking the highest Home job, newly minted Speaker Mike Johnson vowed to “refuse to place individuals over progress,” sparking jokes from his Democratic counterparts. “Home Democrats will proceed to place individuals over politics,” Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries said Friday on X, previously Twitter. “Why is that a problem for our Republican colleagues?”
