John,
George Santos now has the unique distinction of becoming one of six House representatives expelled from Congress.
This comes on the heels of an explosive report from the House Ethics Committee earlier last month that detailed much of what federal investigators and prosecutors have uncovered about Santos thus far.
The former freshman Congressman from New York is finally facing accountability — after being indicted on a slew of federal charges, including money laundering and stealing public funds. And it comes nearly a year after Santos was exposed as a fraud, telling countless, outrageous lies to get into Congress — but it never had to get this far.
Local newsrooms like ours are usually the first to uncover corruption and misconduct in politics. But with more and more local newsrooms being shuttered, there aren’t reliable sources to expose bad actors like George Santos before they make it to Congress.
To recap, the list of lies Santos told to get elected to Congress is long and despicable — including his claims that his mother survived the 9/11 terrorist attacks and that he had employees killed in the Pulse nightclub shooting.
And the fact that Santos almost got away with it says a lot about the state of the news media in 2023.
The disappearance of local newsrooms means stories like this of fraud and corruption can slip through the cracks. Courier Newsroom was founded because we understand that local newsrooms are the eyes and ears of our communities.
But to provide this critical local news coverage, we need the resources to hire and retain talented local reporters and keep the lights on in our existing newsrooms and open new ones.
Thank you,
The Courier Newsroom Team