Can George Santos run for Congress again after being expelled for serial lies and indictments?

Serial liar and former congressman George Santos never ceases to amaze.

The New Yorker was expelled from the House in December following a series of scandals including a damning Ethics Committee report accusing him of committing “uncharged and unlawful conduct,” 23 criminal counts at the federal level, and a plethora of lies about his past.

His latest stunt then came on Thursday night when he turned up to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address and announced he would be running for Congress once again.

Even this announcement came with a characteristic series of surprises.

The former lawmaker-turned-Cameo star claimed that he left office “arbitrarily,” adding to his parade of lies that got him into trouble in the first place given an expulsion from Congress is far from arbitrary.

Mr Santos also announced that he would be switching districts. He previously represented New York’s third congressional district for less than one term after flipping his district red. In a February special election, his seat flipped back to blue when the district elected Democrat Tom Suozzi to replace him.

Now, the disgraced ex-Congressman says he will be taking on his former Republican colleague Nick LaLota, accusing him of having a “weak record as a Republican”.

Pushing these grand plans aside, one lingering question remains: can the criminally charged, expelled former lawmaker even be re-elected to Congress?

In May 2023, the embattled lawmaker was arrested and charged with 13 federal criminal counts, including wire fraud, money laundering, and theft of public funds.

By October, a superseding indictment revealed 10 new federal charges against Mr Santos, increasing the total to 23 counts. He was also charged with making materially