The US House of Representatives has expelled from Congress a 35-year old congressman George Santos after damning report of fraud charges and lies about his past.
Lawmakers voted 311 to 114 to oust their disgraced lawmaker.
Santos has been accused of using campaign money for luxury expenses such as Botox and stealing charity money for a veteran’s dying service dog.
The 35-year-old, from Queens, is only the sixth lawmaker in history to have been expelled from Congress.
His ouster comes after the House ethics committee released a report that found he “blatantly stole from his campaign” and exploited “every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit”.
Among the many allegations in its final report, the panel accused him of spending campaign money on OnlyFans – a platform where users pay for content, including pornography – and holidays in the Hamptons, an elite seaside enclave in New York state.
Expulsion votes are rare in Congress and require two-thirds of the House. Of those who voted to expel him, 206 were Democrats and 105 were Republicans.
Mr Santos made a quick exit as the votes against him started to pour in, jumping straight into a waiting SUV without answering any questions.
After the resolution to expel Mr Santos was adopted on Friday, there was scattered applause from both sides of the aisle.
A group of four New York Republicans who were elected alongside him and who have long sought to give him the boot said they can now finally “stop talking about him”.
They also dispute it sets bad precedent to remove him.
“The precedent that is set is that we hold members of Congress to a higher standard,” said New York Republican lawmaker Anthony D’Esposito. “The people of New York’s third congressional district need representation.”
