The 35-year-old New York lawmaker has pleaded not guilty to charges accusing him of crimes including laundering funds to pay for his personal expenses, illegally receiving unemployment benefits and charging donors’ credit cards without their consent.

The former treasurer for Santos’ campaign pleaded guilty on Oct. 5 to a conspiracy charge for inflating fundraising numbers.

“I must warn my colleagues that voting for expulsion at this point would circumvent the judicial system’s right to due process that I’m entitled to and desanctify the long-held premise that one is presumed innocent until proven guilty,” Santos said ahead of the vote.

Expulsion of a lawmaker requires a vote by two-thirds of the chamber. Only five people have been expelled from the House in the country’s history, three for fighting against the U.S. government in the Civil War.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This is why I keep telling people we can’t pass an Amendment to do things like change gun control.

    It starts with a 2/3rds majority in the House, 290 votes.

    We couldn’t get 290 votes to agree on Santos’ obvious crimimal behavior, we’ll NEVER get it on something like the 2nd Amendment, or Supreme Court term limits, or anything else remotely useful.

    • spyd3r@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      we’ll NEVER get it on something like the 2nd Amendment

      Why do you want to make people disarmed and defenseless?

      • RGB3x3@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Because there’s very little reason to own a gun except to defend yourself against someone with a gun…

        There are SO many more murders committed with firearms than there are any other type of weapon or method.

        If we were to sufficiently restrict firearm ownership, there’d be almost no reason to own one at all.

        • Fal@yiffit.net
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          1 year ago

          Because there’s very little reason to own a gun except to defend yourself against someone with a gun…

          How fucking privileged of you. Not everyone can beat any random person in a hand to hand fight.

          • RGB3x3@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            If you’re resorting to fists and further to guns in a dispute, you’re part of the problem.

            A fist fight shouldn’t resort to murder by a gun.

            And there were only 655 murders by fists, kicks, etc. in 2022. It should absolutely not be of any concern.

            • Fal@yiffit.net
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              1 year ago

              Oh well if you’re not gonna die then it’s totally fine to get jumped and beaten

          • Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            Cowardly criminals are more likely to commit a violent crime if they have a gun to hide behind. Doubt most of them would even consider doing some of the stuff they do if they only had access to knives and bats.

        • shalafi@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          My guns would be FAR more likely used against a crazy animal than a human. But the option is there.

          How much time you spend in the woods and how you set for gators, panthers and bears? And I don’t hunt BTW. But the option is there.

          https://imgur.com/a/pR7CuLA