Brandon Livesay
US reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Less than a year after he was elected, New York Republican George Santos has been booted from the US House of Representatives.

His colleagues voted to expel him by a vote of 311-114.

Santos had survived two prior attempts to oust him, but could not survive a third. A scathing ethics report into his conduct seemed to be the catalyst for many Republicans to change their minds and say, he needs to go.

And while he is gone from the House, he won't be out of the spotlight just yet. Santos still faces multiple criminal charges.

• For all the details on how today's vote happened, you can read this article.
• And you can read this article to hear from constituents, friends and staff who have felt betrayed by Santos' lies.

Our reporters at Capitol Hill today were Sam Cabral and Nomia Iqbal. Anthony Zurcher provided analysis from Washington DC, and Ece Goksedef contributed from London.

This page was edited by Brajesh Upadhyay and myself. Thanks for following along.

George Santos became just the sixth member of the US House to be expelled.

Here is how it happened:

• Very soon after George Santos entered the chamber, the voting started
• The yeas were 311 and the nays were 114, with two lawmakers voting present. There were 105 of Santos’ Republican colleagues who turned against him. Meanwhile, two Democrats voted for him to keep his seat
• Santos left the Capitol building even before the final vote count was in
• A Republican member of the House, Anthony D’Esposito, said “The precedent that is set is that we hold members of Congress to a higher standard,” after the voting
• And the race for Santos’s seat has already begun. New York Governor Kathy Hochul said that she was prepared to start the process to fill in the vacancy
• Hochul has 10 days to officially call for an election, And the actual election would take place 70-80 days later

Pratiksha Ghildial
Reporting from Long Island

In a sleepy market area of Great Neck, a part of George Santos’ (former) constituency, some people are getting lunch at a local diner.

Among them is a senior citizen, Miriam Forman, who has just heard the news of Santos being expelled.

“He really shouldn’t have been in Congress," she says.

"Even to get into graduate school, you have to demonstrate some gift for doing what you say you are going to do. It doesn’t happen with Congressmen.”

Outside the diner I meet James Pritsiolas, who voted for Santos but now says that the New Yorker deserved the treatment he got today.

“I will also say that many of them (in the Congress) deserve it. Many have done much worse. He is the first to go but hopefully he is not the last to go,” he adds.

Overall the sentiment here does not seem to favour Santos. Most people say they were glad to see him go.

Sixty-year-old Danny Block says that Santos “lied about everything".

“It’s not extraordinary for a politician to lie but there should be some truth some time.”

One woman who was in hurry just muttered “good riddance” as she walked past me after I asked her about the expulsion.

Madeline Halpert
US reporter

On his journey to infamy and political leadership, George Santos has left some angry constituents in his wake.

One of these voters is Cathy Soref, a resident of Locust Valley on Long Island.

She met Santos at a fundraiser in 2021 and was instantly charmed by a man she found to be “nerdy” and “outgoing”.

The two developed a rapport. Santos would stop by her house for coffee, once claiming to her that he had battled cancer.

Soref hosted several expensive fundraisers and introduced him to major donors. She would give $3,000 (£2,300) of her own money to his campaign. Now, she regrets it all.

"I've never been so betrayed by a person to my face in my life,” she told the BBC.

"To have someone in your house who's such a bald-faced liar is just bone chilling, quite frankly, and I never want to see the guy's face again,” she added.

You can read more about others who say they were deceived by Santos here.

Nomia Iqbal
Reporting from Capitol Hill

More now from Republican congressman Mike Lawler, a US representative for New York's 17th congressional district who voted to expel Santos.

He said Santos was "unfit to serve".

"The question was about process and I think people wanted to be able to say that, you know, there was a report that there was an investigation and so a lot of folks wanted to wait until the ethics report came forward," he said.

"Obviously, it did, and convinced enough members."

I asked him about the precedent it sets - an issue raised by fellow Republican Jim Jordan.

“The only requirement in the house is that the House sets the rules, that the House governs the conduct of its members, and that it requires two thirds vote to expel someone. He was afforded due process. He had the opportunity to comply with the Ethics Committee he chose not to.”

Santos' vacated seat now throws up a Democratic opportunity, but the Congressman says whilst it’ll be competitive, he’s confident Republicans can win it.

The election will take place in February 2024.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
US Reporter

Image source, Getty Images

After his expulsion from Congress, another major challenge awaits George Santos in a New York federal court where he faces 23 criminal charges next year.

In May, Santos was indicted on 13 criminal charges including fraud, theft of public funds, money laundering and making false statements to Congress.

A second, superseding indictment filed in October saw him charged with 10 additional crimes:

• conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States
• two counts of wire fraud
• two counts of aggravated identity theft
• two counts of making false statements to the Federal Election Commission(FEC)
• two counts of falsifying records to the FEC, and access device fraud.

Prosecutors allege Santos laundered campaign funds to pay for his personal expenses, illegally claimed unemployment benefits and reported non-existent loans to his campaign to qualify for support from the Republican Party, among other offences.

He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges and denied any wrongdoing. A trial has been set for 9 September 2024.

Republican lawmaker Mike Lawler spoke with the BBC on the steps of the Capitol after the vote.

He said Santos was "completely unfit to serve".

Lawler said Santos' actions were "criminal".

You can watch Lawler's comments in the video above.

Madeline Halpert
US reporter

Image source, Naysa Woomer

The BBC spoke to one of Santos’ former staffers, his former director of communications, to learn more about what has taken place behind closed doors at Santos’ office.

When Naysa Woomer first met the lawmaker, she said he had a good sense of humour.

She bonded with him over their shared values as conservative millennials from the north-east. But she soon realised she had her work cut out for her.

Just weeks before she moved to Washington, DC to start her job, the New York Times published an investigation revealing Santos had fabricated much of his CV. She decided to press on with the role.

“I just thought, 'Maybe we can fix this,'" she said.

Eventually, she could not, Woomer said.

Santos largely ignored her suggestions to do a big sit-down interview and apologize to constituents. “Santos did not want to seem to face the music,” she said.

Instead, he seemed to be more focused on attracting reporters to his office with treats like Chick-fil-A and doughnuts.

"It struck me as someone who was enjoying the media attention a little too much,” Woomer said.Eventually, when news of the federal charges against Santos broke, she decided to resign.

"My stomach dropped," she said. "I was thoroughly disgusted. I just said 'Enough is enough.'"

You can read more here.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

Now that George Santos has been booted from the House of Representatives, New York Governor Kathy Hochul will have to schedule a special election to fill the vacancy to be held sometime in the next three months.

The Democrats who had already been lining up to run for the seat in next November’s general election will have to decide if they want to throw their hat into the ring for the earlier contest.

Foremost among them is the man who represented New York’s Third Congressional District before Santos – and who beat Santos in 2020 - Tom Suozzi.

Suozzi opted not to run for re-election in 2022 in order to focus on what would be an unsuccessful governor’s race against Hochul.

But given his name recognition and connections to Long Island Democratic politics, he is the favourite to get his party’s backing.

Republicans, meanwhile, are left scrambling.

While the writing has been on the wall for some time, Santos only recently announced he would not run for re-election – and there is no clear frontrunner for the Republican nomination yet.

Whoever does get the nod, however, is sure to have the support of the national Republican Party, setting up a closely watched faceoff in a district Joe Biden won by approximately 8% in 2020.

Sam Cabral
Reporting from Capitol Hill

Just across from the Capitol in the Longworth House Office Building, all is quiet outside George Santos’ congressional office.

A sign attached to the doorway says “Yes! We’re open” - but there are no signs of life inside except for a staffer who briefly exited, without a word, to pick up a bouquet of flowers and a small potted plant left at the entrance.

Several people are stopping by for selfies with Santos’ name plate by the door. One man just slipped a letter through to the staff, but he would not tell us if it is fan mail, hate mail or something else.

Reporters are hoping Santos will show up, but a colleague just told me that Santos will likely come back to gather his belongings on Saturday - when nobody is around.

On this first floor corridor, though, the exterior of his office screams for attention.

The entrance is covered in posters of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas, and also some thank you notes

Nomia Iqbal
Reporting from Capitol Hill

Congressman Jim Jordan, a Republican who voted against expulsion, told the BBC he’s worried about the precedent this sets.

“Who’s next? You let due process play out. The voters elected him. You gotta be careful in taking a vote to kick out of Congress, someone the voters sent to Congress," Jordan said.

"The people voted for him. And now we’re saying to them, sorry because he’s under investigation, and without going to court, without trial, not having been found guilty, but you’re thrown out by Congress? Who’s the next person? That’s a valid concern.”

I asked if there was a sense that Santos was becoming an albatross around the Republican party’s neck, and if Santos was an embarrassment.

“Congress is Congress. There’s always some issue of the day. We’re all flawed human beings," Jordan replied.

Democrat congressman Jamie Raskin just spoke with our reporter Sam Cabral on the steps of the Capitol.

He told the BBC: "Look, I keep asking the question, where did George Santos get the idea that you could lie cheat steal, corrupt your office and still succeed in the Republican party?"

"It comes from the top, it's Donald Trump who has set that standard of corruption for the GOP," Raskin said.

Raskin added if this is a new day for ethics in politics, Trump should be next to go.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has just posted on social media, saying she is "prepared to undertake the solemn responsibility of filling the vacancy in New York's 3rd district".

"The people of Long Island deserve nothing less," she added.

So how it works now is Hochul has 10 days to officially call for an election.

And the actual election would take place 70-80 days later.

That timeline would put an election at roughly the end of February, 2024.

Minutes after George Santos lost the vote to stay in Congress, reactions started pouring in from lawmakers.

Among the first to react was far-right Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene who called the vote "shameful".

"Republican voters want us to stop the communist Democrat’s agenda and hold Democrats accountable, NOT destroy our majority and do nothing to hold Democrats accountable," the Georgia lawmaker said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Anthony D’Esposito, a Long Island Republican who pushed for Santos’s expulsion, said: “It shouldn’t have come to this".

“George Santos should have held himself accountable. He should have resigned.”

Sam Cabral
Reporting from Capitol Hill

A group of four New York Republicans who entered Congress with George Santos have long sought to give him the boot.

Now we can finally “stop talking about him”, they say.

They dispute that there is a bad precedent set by ousting him in a vote.

“The precedent that is set is that we hold members of Congress to a higher standard,” says Anthony D’Esposito.

“The people of New York’s third congressional district need representation.”

D’Esposito, and his colleagues Mike Lawler and Nick LaLota, vowed to get involved in the special election to replace Santos.

And in the meantime, they pledge, “our phone lines and emails are open” to his constituents.

US House Speaker Mike Johnson walked out of the chamber but did not seem keen to talk about the ousting of his fellow Republican George Santos.

He spoked briefly about Israel funding and ignored a CBS reporter who asked about Santos and how it would impact on the Republican majority.

After talking about Israel he said, "that's the only comment I'm gonna make".

The race to replace Santos beginspublished at 16:22 Greenwich Mean Time 1 December 2023

16:22 GMT 1 December 2023

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

On the third strike, George Santos was out.

What changed between the first two unsuccessful ouster votes and this one?

A damning ethics committee report that provided extensive details of alleged campaign and personal corruption by Santos.

The findings gave cover for Republicans to finally abandon the New York congressman, even if he hadn’t received the kind of criminal conviction that had preceded the two other modern-day House expulsions.

In the end, enough Republicans in the chamber were happy to be rid of the ongoing Santos embarrassment, even if the party’s leadership - perhaps fearing the precedent it would set and eying a dwindling House majority - opted not to support the removal.

New York Republicans, however, will be elated. They had been pressing for his removal for months, concerned that the scandal-ridden legislator was damaging their own chances of winning elections in the state next year.

Now Santos is left to defend himself against the multiple criminal charges he faces.

And Republicans and Democrats can turn their attention to pressing legislative matters - and gearing up for what is likely to be a furious, and expensive, fight over who replaces Santos in the House.

Santos is gone, but he still has access to Capitol gym, library and morepublished at 16:17 Greenwich Mean Time 1 December 2023

16:17 GMT 1 December 2023

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

Santos has lost the ability to vote on legislation immediately.

Workers will now remove his nameplate from his office in the Longworth building across the street from the Capitol. His staff there and in his New York offices can keep their jobs until voters pick his replacement, but they will report to the administrative office of the Capitol, not to Santos.

In the meantime, they can continue to provide services to Santos’ former constituents in New York’s Third Congressional District.

Santos won’t exactly become just another ordinary citizen, however.

He will continue to enjoy the privileges afforded to former members of Congress who leave under less controversial circumstances. As long as he isn’t criminally convicted, doesn't take a job as a foreign lobbyist or isn't advocating for a specific piece of legislation, he will be able to stroll the halls of the Congress, including access to the floor of the House of Representatives.

He can dine in the exclusive House restaurant, exercise in the Capitol gym and borrow books from the Library of Congress.

He is not eligible for the cushy congressional legislative pension, however. He would have to serve in the House for a total of five years to qualify. Of course, there’s nothing stopping Santos from running for Congress again, if he so decides.

Now that George Santos has been expelled, a special election will be called to fill his Long Island seat in New York.

That election would happen sometime within the next three months.

And it would be a spicy race with plenty at stake.

Santos is a Republican. In 2020, New York largely voted for Joe Biden - a Democrat.

Both parties will want to control that vacant seat.