Following his expulsion from the House of Representatives, George Santos, a Republican from New York, became one of the few politicians in U.S. history to suffer such disgrace.
Only 20 members, consisting of five representatives and 15 senators, had previously been ousted from office by their peers, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Previous expulsions were primarily due to disloyalty to the United States, specifically for supporting the Confederacy over the Union during the Civil War.
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Of the senators expelled, 14 were ousted for this reason, while one, William Blount of Tennessee, was removed after devising a plan to attack Spanish Florida and Louisiana and transfer them to England for his personal financial gain.
Three of the five House members expelled before Santos were pro-slavery Confederacy supporters. The other two were expelled more recently after being convicted of felonies.
Henry C. Burnett of Kentucky
Burnett, born in Virginia in 1825, moved to Trigg County, Kentucky as a child, according to the Kentucky Historical Society.
He was a lawyer and politician who served as the Trigg County Court clerk and represented Kentucky’s 1st Congressional District from 1854 until his expulsion in December 1861 due to disloyalty to the Union.
During the Civil War, he was a colonel in the Kentucky Infantry, part of the Confederate army.
John B. Clark of Missouri
Clark was born in Kentucky in 1802 and later moved to Missouri, settling in the Little Dixie region of the state.
He was a lawyer, militia officer, and a member of Missouri’s House of Representatives. He was elected to Congress in 1856 and expelled in July 1861 for disloyalty to the Union.
Clark served as a senator from Missouri in the first Confederate Congress and was a brigadier general of Missouri’s Confederate troops.
John W. Reid of Missouri
Reid was born in Virginia in 1821 and moved to Missouri in 1840. After studying law, he began practicing in Jefferson City.
He served as a captain in the U.S. war with Mexico and was a member of Missouri’s House of Representatives before being elected to Congress in 1860.
He withdrew from the House of Representatives in August 1861 and was expelled four months later due to disloyalty to the Union. Reid was a volunteer aide to Gen. Sterling Price of the Confederate army during the Civil War.
Michael J. Myers of Pennsylvania
Myers, also known as Ozzie, was born in Philadelphia in 1943. He worked as a steamship checker with the longshoremen’s union after graduating from high school.
A former Pennsylvania state lawmaker and Democrat, he was elected to the House of Representatives in a special election in 1976 and reelected two years later.
He was expelled from Congress in 1980 by a large majority after being convicted of bribery in the Abscam scandal. He was sentenced to three years in prison.
Years later, he faced more prison time after pleading guilty to election fraud, accused of orchestrating schemes to manipulate several Pennsylvania elections in favor of Democratic candidates.
James A. Traficant Jr. of Ohio
Traficant, a Democrat, was born in Youngstown in 1941. Before being elected to Congress, he worked as a drug counselor and was later elected as Mahoning County sheriff in 1980.
He was acquitted of bribery charges after acting as his own lawyer, despite not having a law degree, when federal prosecutors charged him with taking bribes from organized crime figures. He was elected to Congress the following year.
However, his career ended when he was expelled by an overwhelming vote after being convicted of bribery, racketeering, tax evasion, and other felonies in 2002.
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