If Santos Is Expelled From House, He Will Join a Small, Infamous Group

Should Representative George Santos , Republican of New York, be expelled from the House in a vote expected Friday, he would join a select group of disgraced U.S. politicians consigned to that ignominious fate.

In the history of Congress, only 20 members — five representatives and 15 senators — have been removed from office by a vote of their peers, according to the Congressional Research Service .

The reason for most of the previous ousters was disloyalty to the United States, specifically for supporting the Confederacy over the Union amid the Civil War. One senator, William Blount of Tennessee, was expelled in 1797 after hatching a scheme to attack Spanish Florida and Louisiana, territories at the time, and transfer them to England for his own financial gain.

Two of the three House members expelled for supporting secession and the Confederacy were from Missouri: John W. Reid and John B. Clark; the third was Henry C. Burnett of Kentucky. All three owned slaves, according to a database compiled by The Washington Post .