The House Ethics Committee is officially investigating George Santos for his campaign activity, financial disclosures, and a sexual misconduct allegation

• The House Ethics Committee has officially launched an investigation into scandal-plagued Rep. George Santos.
• The committee's investigation includes his 2022 campaign and sexual misconduct allegations.
• But the evenly-divided committee doesn't have a history of taking strong action against wrongdoing.

Republican Rep. George Santos of New York is officially the subject of an investigation by the House Committee on Ethics.

The evenly-divided committee, chaired by Republican Rep. Michael Guest of Mississippi, unanimously voted on Tuesday to establish an investigative subcommittee to look into various aspects of Santos' conduct, according to a release.

Specifically, the investigative subcommittee — chaired by Republican Rep. Dave Joyce of Ohio — will investigate whether Santos engaged in unlawful activity during his 2022 House campaign, whether he made inaccurate statements on his financial disclosure, whether he violated federal conflict of interest laws, and whether he engaged in sexual misconduct against a prospective employee.

"The Committee notes that the mere fact of establishing an Investigative Subcommittee does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred," read a statement from the committee. "No other public comment will be made on this matter except in accordance with Committee rules."

The opening of a formal investigation of the committee comes after a series of complaints against the scandal-plagued congressman, including one from Democratic Reps. Dan Goldman and Ritchie Torres of New York.

But as Insider previously reported, the committee is unlikely to take strong action against Santos, despite House Speaker Kevin McCarthy seemingly making the evenly-divided panel the arbiter of the congressman's fate.

That's because any serious inquiry into Santos is likely to be criminal in nature, in which case the committee is likely to be asked to step aside. Additionally, the committee has historically been subject to the whims of party leadership, which has so far stopped short of taking harsh action against Santos.

In a tweet, Santos' congressional office said that he is "fully cooperating" with the probe and would not comment on it further at the time.

—Rep. George Santos (@RepSantosNY03) March 2, 2023