The infamous five congressmen to be booted from the House

Lawmakers are rarely forced out of Congress, and only five people in United States history have been removed from the House of Representatives. However, embattled Rep. George Santos (R-NY) could soon become the sixth.

The majority of expulsions in the House occurred during the Civil War, but removals have happened as recently as 2002. Santos is in danger of becoming the latest as he is expected to face another expulsion vote this week after a damning report accused the New York Republican of lying and misallocating campaign funds.

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Here are the five lawmakers in the House who were successfully removed from office:

Three Civil War men

Congress faced myriad problems during the four years of the Civil War, including a decision to push three Southerners out of the lower chamber after they supported their states’ efforts to leave the Union.

The three men were Missouri Reps. John Reid and John Clark and Kentucky Rep. Henry Burnett. When the men were ousted, they were accused of helping their states secede from the Union, helping to establish an alternative government in the South, and joining the war on the Southern side.

Congress also expelled 11 senators over the same reasons and their failure to report back to Washington, D.C., after Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860.

Rep. Michael Myers

Former Rep. Michael Myers, a Pennsylvania Democrat, was booted from the House in 1980 for his role in the Abscam bribery scandal, which saw political officials accept bribes in exchange for political favors.

The yearslong sting operation, which was videotaped, resulted in the expulsion of Myers from the House and the resignation of five other congressmen and one senator. The mayor of Camden, New Jersey, was also ousted from office.

Myers was sentenced to three years in prison after he was caught on tape accepting an envelope with a $50,000 bribe from an undercover FBI agent. The lawmaker believed the money was in exchange for getting a fictional Arab sheikh asylum in the U.S.

Rep. James Traficant

Former Rep. James Traficant, an Ohio Democrat, was the latest to be removed from the lower chamber after he was accused of systematically using campaign funds for personal use and mistreating his staff in 2002.

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Traficant was also accused of allegedly accepting bribes while serving as sheriff in Mahoning County in 1983. However, he was acquitted after he argued that he only accepted bribes as part of his own undercover investigation into public corruption.

The Ohio lawmaker was later sentenced to seven years in prison on bribery, racketeering, and tax evasion charges.