Two congressional Democrats asked House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday to limit Republican Rep. George Santos’ access to classified information, arguing the scandal-plagued freshman lawmaker “can’t be trusted” with confidential materials.
“It is obvious that Congressman George Santos has violated the general public’s trust on various occasions,” Reps. Joseph Morelle and Gregory Meeks, each from Santos’ own state of Recent York, said in a letter to McCarthy.
“His unfettered access to our nation’s secrets presents a big risk to the national security of this country,” the Democrats wrote. “We urge you to act swiftly to forestall George Santos from abusing his position and endangering our nation.”
Santos’ office didn’t immediately reply to CNBC’s request for comment on the letter.
Just weeks after winning his congressional race within the November midterms, Santos admitted to lying about key details of his personal life and skilled history. He has apologized for having “embellished” his resume but denies committing any crimes.
But as Meeks and Morelle note of their letter, Santos is embroiled in local, state, federal and international investigations. In addition they flagged recent reporting about Santos’ alleged ties to figures related to a sanctioned Russian oligarch, amongst other issues.
“The many concerning allegations about his behavior over many years put his character into query, and suggest he can’t be trusted with confidential and classified information that would threaten the USA’ national security,” the Democrats wrote.
Top GOP officials in Recent York have denounced Santos as a liar and a fraud, and a handful of his fellow Republicans in Congress even have urged him to resign. For his part, Santos has vowed to serve out his full two-year term, arguing his district’s voters ought to be those to determine his political fate.
McCarthy, who leads a slim House majority that Santos’ departure could shrink much more, has echoed that line and refused to affix in his party’s blaring criticism of the freshman congressman.
“You recognize why I’m standing by him? Because his constituents voted for him,” McCarthy told reporters Tuesday. The Republican leader said Santos would only be faraway from the House if its ethics committee determined that he broke the law.
A spokesman for McCarthy didn’t immediately comment on the Democrats’ letter.
The McCarthy-led GOP Steering Committee last week awarded Santos spots on the Science, Space and Technology Committee and the Small Business Committee.
Wednesday’s letter from Morelle and Meeks asked McCarthy to limit Santos’ ability to access classified materials, “including stopping him from attending any classified briefings and limiting his access to such information through his committee assignments.”
The Democrats appeared to acknowledge that Santos was assigned to lower-profile committees, but they noted that he could still potentially gain access to swaths of sensitive information.
“Because it currently stands, Members are usually not mandated to have security clearances nor sign a nondisclosure agreement, nevertheless, that doesn’t entitle them to unlimited access to classified information,” they wrote.
“Congressman George Santos was assigned to committees whose jurisdiction may pertain to only a portion of our country’s national security and foreign policy agenda, yet this doesn’t stop or inhibit him from requesting a secure briefing or classified documents regarding a breadth of topics at any time,” they said.
Santos’ “untrustworthiness could warrant the Intelligence Community to decelerate or limit certain classified information it shares with Congress,” they told McCarthy within the letter.
They argued: “This might have profound implications for the Legislative Branch’s ability to perform its legislative, oversight, and investigative duties over the Executive Agencies’ classified programs.”
The Democrats’ letter comes amid an expanding controversy over the removal of classified documents from secure locations by high-profile politicians.
A lawyer for Mike Pence revealed Tuesday that classified documents were discovered at the previous vp’s Indiana home. That news was seen as a relief for President Joe Biden, who has come under intense scrutiny after classified documents were found at his home and office, prompting the appointment of a special counsel to analyze.
Last summer, the FBI raided former President Donald Trump’s Florida home and removed hundreds of pages of records, including quite a few sets of classified documents, after the Department of Justice said it found evidence of obstruction of an investigation.
Trump has announced he’s running for president again in 2024, while Pence and Biden are each widely purported to be gearing as much as launch their very own campaigns.
