BREAKING: George Santos says he will not resign

During a press conference on Thursday morning, Rep. George Santos made it very clear that he had no intention of resigning amid claims by the Ethics Committee that they had uncovered "substantial evidence" of criminal wrongdoing.

The Republican congressman from New York said the attempts by the committee to force him to step down were nothing more than "theater," calling those involved "bullies." This comes as the House is set to vote on Thursday on whether to expel Santos or not.

"If I leave, the bullies take place; this is bullying," Santos said. "The chair of the committee putting out a motion to expel, just introducing it and not calling its privilege, was designed to force me to resign, but he didn't even have the fortitude to go ahead and call the privilege. He had someone else do it!"

He went on to refer to the whole process as "all theater," and dismissed the report released by the committee.

"It's littered in hyperbole, littered in opinion ... No decent cop would bring this to a proseutor or a DA and say 'here's our report, go ahead and charge him'."

Santos pointed out that if he is voted out of Congress on Friday, he will be sixth member, and first Republican, in the nation's history, to suffer that fate. He warned, however, that it would open the door to more investigations and expulsions.

"If the House wants to start different precedent and expel me, that is going to be the undoing of a lot of members of this body," he said, "because this will haunt them in the future where mere allegations are sufficient to have members removed from office when duly elected by their people."

Earlier this month, Santos revealed that as a result of the attention he's received, he would not be seeking a second term in Congress.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.